Episode 62: Jason Noel - Push Comes to Shove

Episodes

Jun 28

Jason Noel had a seizure in the Omaha airport on his way to the first day of a new job. Diagnosed with glioblastoma, he ran his first half marathon while still on chemo.

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About this episode

Jason Noel is a Carmel dad of three, a US Coast Guard licensed boat captain, a dive master, and a brain cancer survivor. On August 2, 2021, he had a seizure at the Omaha airport, and days later surgeons removed a grade 4 glioblastoma. After 42 days of chemo and radiation and 13 more months of chemo, he signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon right in his doctor's office and finished it in 2:22:57 while still in a chemo cycle.

We talk about sharing a hospital room with a former bank robber who was also a brain tumor survivor, scan anxiety, refusing to call his diagnosis terminal, and the friend he calls his battle buddy, Kelly, whose legacy lives on through Kelly's Kegs and Eggs. Jason also shares his first marathon in Chicago, running with the Thursday morning group he calls the sloths, pushing at the Indy Mini with Ainsley's Angels, and his plans to run Chicago, New York and Dopey while raising money for brain tumor research.

In this episode, we discuss

Becoming a Coast Guard licensed boat captain and dive master with the Boy Scouts' Florida Sea Base
Leaving Harley-Davidson for a job in Omaha during COVID
A grand mal seizure in the Omaha airport and a glioblastoma diagnosis on August 2, 2021
Sharing a hospital room with Tyrell, a former bank robber and fellow brain tumor survivor
Signing up for the Disney Princess Half from his doctor's office and finishing in 2:22:57 during chemo
Living with scan anxiety and MRIs every three months
Pushing at the Indy Mini with Ainsley's Angels in a shirt with a fundraising QR code
The American Brain Tumor Association and National Brain Tumor Society
Race for Hope in Washington, DC, and advocating at Head to the Hill
Writing 42 thoughts on survivorship for the 42 staples in his head
Refusing to use the word terminal
His battle buddy Kelly and the Kelly's Kegs and Eggs 5K
How the Thursday morning running group became the sloths
His first marathon in Chicago and plans for Chicago, New York and Dopey
Dreams of public speaking and the theme song "Push Comes to Shove" by Jackyl

Chapters

Intro
Captain Noel and scuba diving
A seizure in the Omaha airport
Brain surgery and a bank robber roommate
Recovery and the Disney Princess Half
The Indy Mini and Ainsley's Angels
ABTA, NBTS and Head to the Hill
What survivorship means
Mental health and community
Kelly's Kegs and Eggs
The sloths
Chicago, New York and Dopey
Kids, running and commitment
Public speaking dreams
Mantras, a clean scan and the fairy garden

Where to find Jason

Instagram: @bigmunson

Mentioned in this episode

Races: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Indy Mini-Marathon, Race for Hope DC, Chicago Marathon, New York City Marathon, Dopey Challenge, Shamrock Shuffle, Army Ten-Miler, Kelly's Kegs and Eggs 5K, Carmel Marathon, Monumental Mile, Indiana Women's Running Festival
Organizations and charities: American Brain Tumor Association, National Brain Tumor Society, Ainsley's Angels, Boy Scouts of America Florida Sea Base, Harley-Davidson, MD Anderson Cancer Center at Community North, Clothing for a Cause, Beyond Monumental, Fishers Running Club
Other: "Push Comes to Shove" by Jackyl, Full Throttle Saloon, Hagan-Burke Trail, Zootopia

Previous guests mentioned

Related episodes

Frequently asked

Who is Jason Noel?

Jason Noel is a Carmel, Indiana father of three, licensed boat captain and glioblastoma survivor who was diagnosed in August 2021 after a seizure at the Omaha airport and went on to run half marathons and the Chicago Marathon.

Did Jason Noel run a half marathon during chemotherapy?

Yes. Jason Noel ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February 2022, his first half marathon, while still in a chemotherapy cycle, finishing in 2:22:57.

What organizations does Jason Noel run for?

Jason Noel raises money for the American Brain Tumor Association and the National Brain Tumor Society, running the Chicago Marathon for the ABTA and the New York City Marathon for the NBTS.

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Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically, so it may contain errors.

Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones with Ali Bretnacher. Incredible stories and tales of triumphs with everyday people achieving their goals and fitness. This podcast brought to you by Athlete Bouquets. Celebrate finish lines and milestones of the people that you love by visiting athletebouquets.com. Hello and welcome to episode 62. This is Ali Brettnacher. And this last weekend I got to participate in one of my most favorite events that happens every year, and that is the Indianapolis 5K and Monumental Mile. So if you're not familiar with this event, the 5K is actually new. It started last year and this year it grew tremendously, which is really encouraging and exciting.

And the Monumental Mile has been going on for quite some time. So each year I take my family downtown and do the community mile. One of the cool things about this event is that there is literally an event for everyone. So you've got community mile, we've got a doggy dash mile, we've got elites, we've got an open mile. So it's really fun. You could bring anybody. And so it was Sloane, my youngest daughter's first time not in a stroller, which was interesting. I'll tell you more about that in a second. And then I also volunteered. So I was able to volunteer at check in. So when people came to get their bibs, I helped them get a bib and a shirt and answer any questions.

And one of my favorite parts about that was two things in particular. Well, maybe three. I got to see a guy I went to high school with that I hadn't seen in forever. So that was kind of fun. I also got to meet Gregory, who listens to this podcast. So thank you so much for listening Gregory, and for saying hello. It's so fun and weird for me. And then a guy I used to work with, Chris Vinoy, he also was there and listens to my podcast, which surprised me, and I was so happy. So thank you, Chris. I love that you've signed up for all the five KS for the Beyond Monumental.

It's a new challenge this year to do each 5K at each of our events and then you get a special medal as well. So awesome. So that was really fun. And just meeting other volunteers, seeing all the familiar faces. There was a huge showing from the Fishers Running Club there. So I, I just had so much fun. And then a previous guest on this podcast, Carly Stewart, she set her PR in the mile and she ran a 539 and beat her 6th grade self. And I was just so proud to see that even though I didn't actually get to see her. So when it came to my family doing the run, Sydney and Sloan did great.

They were champs. We ended up, I ended up carrying Sloan on my shoulders for let's call it like half of it. And Sydney, we kind of walked most of it. And then Sydney kicked her dad's butt at the end. She just decided they decided to take off and run like the last fourth of mile. And she is fast, I tell ya. She is a natural born runner, which I don't think is like either me or her father, but it was really cool to see. So and thank you to Timmy Howard who captured some photos of me and Sloan at the finish. That was super special to capture that.

So I'm already looking forward to that event next year. And then one more event coming up that I am doing which is the Indiana Women's Running Festival. So that will be on August 31st in Carmel. It used to be downtown Indianapolis and I am going to have a booth at the Expo, so my second time ever doing an Expo. So I hope that if you're doing that event, you'll stop by or maybe even if you're not, you'll stop by. And then on August 31st is the race. So it is for women and that there's a 5KA10K and a half marathon. So I will be the MC the morning of, which means I'll be holding a microphone in front of people, which usually I don't do unless I've had a lot of tequila and I'm in Mexico singing karaoke.

But in this case, I'll be there and hopefully getting everybody excited about the race. And then I will be pacing for the first time. So I'm, I don't know what I've gotten myself into, but I'm really excited and I know it's going to be so much fun. So I'll be doing 155 pace group. So please join me. I will try to make it fun and motivating and yeah, no matter what, it'll be fun. So I had so much fun for this week's episode getting a chance to know Jason Knoll better. Jason is a brain cancer survivor. I feel like that's all I really need to say.

He's a brain cancer survivor. He's a marathoner, he's a dad, a husband, he's a boat captain. He's just amazing. He has so, so many great stories. I know we didn't tell all of them today, but the ones we did tell were were amazing. And I will just shout this out at the very beginning of this is that he is manifesting seeing himself on stage doing some public and motivational speaking. So if you're listening to this and you work for a company that has motivational speakers or you are in a position to hire a motivational speaker, dear Lord, after you listen to this episode, you'll be like, oh, OK.

I will totally hit Jason up. So I hope that you all enjoy this conversation with Jason. Good morning, Jason. Good morning, Ally. Captain Knoll. Did I tell you that? You did tell me that and so I just right off the bat wanted to call you captain 'cause it's so fun. Hello Captain Knoll, so you have AUS Coast Guard captain's license. What does that even mean? Yeah, so kind of an interesting story. When I was in college I was a part of the Army ROTC program and after graduating decided to go a different direction from my Army experience and ended up in the Florida Keys. Well, Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it was fun. And I worked for the Boy Scouts of America at a place called the Florida National High Adventure Sea Base in Isla Mirada, Florida, as well as a location in the southernmost part of the Keys and in the Bahamas. And I went to school and got my sea time and became a boat captain, running sailboats and dive boats and fishing boats for the Boy Scouts of America. That is so freaking cool. It was cool, ended up becoming a dive master there as well. I love scuba. Diving, yeah, it's great. And then did that for about 6 years. And so how old would you have been when you started that?

I got my first scuba certification at 12. Oh, and then kind of just worked my way up and probably became a dive master at like 18. OK wow that is legit 12 years. Old yeah 12 It's called the Junior Open Water program through Patty and started the dive part at 18 on and or the the the captain's license part on and off at 18 and probably didn't get my license until I was 2223 yeah the the sea time is the tough part you have to have 365 days logged on the water I. Thought it was going to be like hours. It's it's days. A day is 4 hours, and you have to have that over five years.

Wow. It's a lot. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, it's cool. I want to talk a little bit more about diving because I love it too. Where did you get certified down in Florida? I my dad was a firefighter and it's not uncommon for fire departments to have dive and rescue teams, so I got my first certification through a local dive shop. Firefighter buddy had a you know, dive shop as a second job and and became open water there and then advanced open water and then when I was in the keys went through nitrox. Yeah, I was going to ask about that because that's where you can go deeper than 100 a hundred feet is what you.

120 is kind of the recreational. Limit, Yeah, OK. But then yeah, I went got nitrox certified, rescue diver and then dive master while I was living there. Cool. Yeah, so did you have to go to the rock quarry as part of your? Like in Indiana, No. I grew up in Kansas City, MO and right outside of Kansas City and so we had the Lake of the Ozarks. Oh, that had to be an interesting place to get. Certified though if you're. Looking for dead bodies in there. Yeah, a little Ozark action. It was messy and dirty and and probably just like getting certified in the rock core, you can't see certifying.

I was just picturing like, OK, somebody's going to float into my face and it's cold. Ours was really, I mean. Yeah, it's cold. So yeah, in fact, I just renewed that license. You have to do it every five years. Yeah, I did it with, I renewed when my husband and I got married 10 years ago. So we're due now. But he he hadn't, he wasn't certified and I was. And so I re went through the certification process at RIVI in Indianapolis and then went to the rock quarry. I was like, honey, I love you because I'm going in that rock quarry again, even though I don't have to.

So you did a refresh? Yeah, Yeah, I did. I have done a refresh a few times, but the captain's license is every five years. OK, so that's what I just renewed. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, yeah. 'Cause wait isn't scuba for life? Yeah, it's for. Life because you show up on a tourist boat in like Mexico and you're like, actually, I'm certified, but you're going to need to put together stuff 'cause I'm not trying to die in the ocean. Yeah, yeah, that's that's why it's called a refresh. Once you get certified, you're. Yeah, certified. So funny. So yeah, fun fact, I'm certified. I've gone diving.

Yeah, in in the keys, in Cayman, Turks and Caicos, Australia. I've been Thailand never. Been there. But yeah, so I love scuba diving. I got to go. I got to go again. So anyway, we digress. But like, what a fun fact, Jason, because there is so much that clearly we need to learn about you. And that was just started off the bat. So I'm just going to call you Captain Jason or Captain Noel. Sounds good. So for those of you who do not know Jason, Jason is here based in Carmel, IN, and he is a brain cancer survivor, which is just what A. Does that seem weird when people talk to, you know, you're like, Oh, yeah, I am a brain cancer survivor.

Yeah, yeah, it's different. It's interesting to hear it, interesting to process it, to feel it, and it's a journey, if you will. You know, I was diagnosed on August 2nd, 2021, so not quite three years ago. And after, you know, 40 after a craninotomy or brain surgery and 42 days of chemotherapy and radiation and you know, 13 consecutive months of chemotherapy after that, here we are. And every three months I get Amri to establish a baseline and the the key is to show stable, no new growth. And just did that yesterday. I've lost track of how many I've had. Yeah, that'd be too much math for me at this moment in time.

So, so yeah, I'll have that follow up appointment tomorrow. But like it's a real thing every three months. You just kind of like, OK, here we are again, here we are. How do you feel going into those appointments? Oh, we call it scan anxiety. Oh, so it's a thing and it's a it leads up to the scan and starts about a week, sometimes two weeks before. This is probably the best one I've ever had where it really didn't bother me until maybe Saturday or Sunday. But you need to just got to keep your mind focused on other things. Yeah. And that's fairly the turn around of getting, you know, having an appointment then tomorrow just a couple days later seems pretty good.

At least you don't have to wait for like 2 weeks. No, those those appointments are set three months ahead of time, so the MRI is set. Gotcha. And followed by the follow up appointment. They're all set. So then do you just, yeah, the scanziety then just continues until you have that appointment? Or you get the results, OK. And the results often come quicker than that next appointment. Yeah, through, through my chart. OK, yeah. So you get the e-mail or text. Yeah. And then you open it up and you're like, all right, So yeah. Yeah. After you've read them as many times as I have you, you know what to look for.

OK. So you would immediately know, and then when you're talk to your doctor, they just kind of reiterate what you've already seen, right? Yeah, yeah. So August 2nd, 2021. That's right. It's also still COVID time. What a horrible. Time to. Go through all of this. So tell people about like what, what were your symptoms leading up to that? Where you knew you needed to go? You know what did that look like? Yeah, really, really good questions. So I hadn't had any symptoms that I was aware of really up until the the. The incident, the. Accident. Yeah, no, the seizure that discovered it. So let me step back for a minute.

We lived here in Carmel during COVID and right up to COVID and I switched careers just kind of a it was the right place, right time thing. Had an amazing career with Harley-Davidson Motor Company, which is what brought us to Carmel. And then when COVID hit, like dealerships weren't open, it was just a, it was a set back for the entire industry and you know, the, the entire world for that matter. And so I had this opportunity pop up where it involved the relocation and we made a family decision to switch industries. So I went into the agriculture industry and we moved to Omaha, NE.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we moved to Omaha with the, you know, anticipation that COVID wouldn't like last forever. It's like, hey, this is going to be a two or three month deal. We'll, we'll, we'll pack up, move cross country, settle into this new career and everything's going to be wonderful. Well, we got to Omaha and this COVID thing just kept going and going and going and it never stopped. We were there 12-14 months and it was like, OK, while I had a great experience with the organization I worked for and met some really good people, it just never connected. And so we decided we wanted to come back to Carmel and I found another opportunity back here in Carmel and I was in the airport in Omaha flying to my first day of work while the family was still in Omaha.

We were trying to sell the house, pack up, move. I, I it's time to go to work. And quickly, who is we at this point? My wife and three kids and I. OK, and how old are your kids? I I will soon have a 15 year old, 13 year old and 10 year old. OK, Yeah. So I was in the Omaha airport and sitting at the snack bar just trying to find something to eat before I boarded the airplane. And that's the last thing I remember was eating a BBQ potato chip. And I had a, you know, a grand circus seizure and was taken to the local hospital.

Thankfully, there was a man at the snack bar who recognized me and knew who I was. He was a relative of a neighbor of mine who I had just met a few days before. What? Yeah. Yeah. And he pulled my cell phone out of my backpack and called ice and called his relative. And she was a local doctor. And she said tell the ambulance to take him to my hospital. And she grabbed my wife 2 doors down and they met me at the hospital. And that's that's all I know and all I remember. Whoa, yeah. So your neighbors basically like your guardian Angel. My goodness, for your wife to be able to that quickly be made aware, be able to get there.

Yeah, yeah. So it turns out as I look back on it all, like, you know, God's master plan put put us in Omaha for a reason. I ended up probably in one of the best hospitals in the country for this specific thing. And not only did I go straight to the hospital, but from the hospital to a CAT scan, to an X-ray, to an MRI, to a diagnosis, all within probably 4 hours. Ended up meeting with what I would consider to be, you know, one of the best surgeons in the country within hours. And she said we're going to take this tumor out next week.

She left me in the care of the hospital and went on a family vacation, flew back from the vacation. And I pulled that tumor out with a team of 17 people. And it took him 10-12 hours. Yeah. So gosh, also your poor wife. At this point I'm thinking, OK, you've got three kids, it's August, so they weren't in school yet. It. Is summertime and so she had to was she with them at home and like had to you know shuttle them over to the neighbor or because I'm just trying to think what a hectic. Yeah, they ended up dispersed, you know, two other neighbors, houses or whatever that case may be so that she could get to the hospital.

Yeah, it was really confusing time. I don't remember a lot of it, but that's the extent of what I remember. Or no, right? Barbecue chip? BBQ chip? Do you eat BBQ chips anymore? Yeah, love them. Love them, just who doesn't? Yeah. Wow. So that's just so crazy. Jason I, I up until that point were you fit like a normal Yeah guy. So the morning that this this took place, I had just run, you know, like it was a Monday morning Six Mile run type thing. It felt great. Didn't didn't think twice about it. Never. Not a problem neighborhood. Yeah, we lived kind of on the back of a lake and, you know, there was a, a router to that I would run a lot.

And yeah, when, when, when that all took place, I was like, whoa, yeah, didn't, didn't have a clue. Right. Well, you just think about, OK, if you would have been out on your run in the morning, like then what happens right? Instead of in an airport with all in a public place with just so happens your neighbor like you get to the right place. Wow. Yeah, I don't. I don't run by myself anymore. Yeah, we'll get to that. We will get to that. Which is so great. So jeez, OK, 42 days and then 13 months you said? Or yeah, 13 months. So a chemo cycle is every 28 days.

OK. Yeah. So, you know, rounded up to a month. So it's 13 months after. And those are called maintenance cycles, if you will. Yeah. And how did you, did your wife notify your the company you were just flying out to work for? Like, hey, Jason's not going to be there today. No, she didn't. Actually. When they got me stable at the hospital, I called. Called the man. Yeah, I called him and told him that it was. There was a turn of events on day one of a new job. Yeah. And it's not like, hey, I like didn't set my alarm and missed my flight. It's yeah.

Yeah. And you said grand circus seizure. Is that a just a, is that a flippant term? Is that? What does that mean? It, it's, it, it's, I guess it's a, you know, a, a term. Yeah, but basically, you know, I was on a bar stool, fell back. Don't don't remember anything. You know, the body loses control. It's it's a circus. It's a circus. Versus just like a little like a small mild seizure that could even potentially go unnoticed. It was, yeah, very obvious. Very obvious. Very obvious, yeah. At least that's the feedback that was provided. Right. Jeez. Yeah, yeah. So Arthur, Mr. Arthur happened to be there and just, jeez, got me connected to the right people in the right place at the right time.

Yeah, that's incredible. I got goosebumps a couple times as you're describing that. It's just like how? How in the world? Yeah. You know, the interesting part about that story as it pertains to COVID is, you know, there's still at that time very limited access to patients, whether it be your family or the ability for anybody to visit. Here. You know, my wife had, you know, huge restrictions and limitations on her ability to visit the hospital was overfilled with with patients. I had a roommate in the hospital and that was that was incredibly unique in its own right. That man. Turned out he was a brain tumor survivor as well.

He was from Omaha and had been in prison for the last 10 years in Terre Haute IN the federal prison for bank robbery. You're just making stuff up. No, I'm not that. Is what? Yeah, yeah. And so had an opportunity over the week or so that I was in recovery after brain surgery to connect with him and just really get to see and understand, you know, different, different life, different people and connect, connect with him. Tyrell. Tyrell still talk to Tyrell to this day. And he's out of prison. Life is good. He's doing well. But yeah, it was Tyrell. The bank robber, did he like tell you all about it?

He did Because that would be interesting. He did. It was a Bonnie and Clyde type thing. Arm like goes in with a gun. Like yeah, they get bags of cash. Yeah, wow. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. You've met a banker. I mean that's just wild. I I shared a hospital room with a bank robber. You would be really fun to play like 2 truths that'll. Lie with. Like I'm a I'm a boat captain. I shared a hospital room with a bank robber. I you know, that's that's why. Amazing individual whose life, you know, it's just turned completely around through his own experiences. I remember walking in and he looked at me and said, looks like you've got the same issue I've had.

And he was, he was just an incredible sense of encouragement. And so I found it as an opportunity to be, you know, an incense of encouragement back to him. And, you know, at one point he looked at me and said, are you a pimp or a preacher, 'cause I just kept trying to lift him up and, and, you know, give back to him the same things he was giving me. But yeah, unique connection. Super cool. That is really cool. Now I can see why you need to write a book like this is just going like and we're just getting started. Yeah. So, man, so you were in Omaha this whole time during all that treatment?

No, I was in Omaha through the first 3-4 months and then we relocated here back to, to Carmel and we're able to get connected to, you know a facility here through the, the network that this small community of doctors and surgeons has. So they were help able to help me find. What? What facility here? I'm at MD Anderson community north. OK, OK. Yeah. So what was your physical state when you made a move across back across the country? Yeah. You know when when you have brain surgery, they talk a lot about physical state. There are huge disruptions or potential unlikely disruptions that are going to happen with brain surgery.

Mobility comes to the top of mind and you know, that may be lazy on one side of your body etcetera. So before I had the brain surgery, they were pretty clear about, you know, the expectations of what I could come out of there with and walking and, or need, you know, the use of a cane or wheelchair or something like that was it was a big topic. For the rest of your life. Yeah, yeah. It was that that was really hard to hear. And I remember the surgeon coming into the room and saying, can you feel your feet? And I was like, yeah, I can.

I can feel my feet. And that was kind of the first sign that, OK, well, this this is, this is, this is good. And while they want you to, you know, lay still, recover, etcetera, for me it was like, well, if I can feel my feet and they're moving me like I probably shouldn't sit still, right? And so I would walk up and down the halls with with an assistant. And then, yeah. And it was tough. But like right away just said, OK, I can't stop moving. And that that's sort of how, you know, this journey of, you know, call it half marathons. Marathons started.

I mean, I always ran, but never the way that I do now. It was like, OK, if I can move here, I got to keep moving and found myself leaving the hospital and going on long walks every day, finding a neighbor or two that would walk with me, etcetera, and then went back to visit the doctor about six weeks after brain surgery. And they're like, how you doing? I said, oh, I'm doing great. You know, I'm walking, things are good. And, you know, there's a little skepticism there. And I got AI got a little cocky. And I said, I'm feeling so good. I'm going to sign up for 1/2 marathon right now.

Like on the spot. Yeah, I don't know if that's a good idea. I pulled my cell phone out, called a friend here back in Carmel, and signed up right there in the room for the Disney Half Princess Marathon the following November. The Princess Marathon. The Princess, That's the one you chose first. You're like, yeah. It's like I want to, I want to go to the happiest place on Earth, right? Wait, let's take the kids. Let's figure this out and just signed up. Just signed up well. The happiest, I mean, Yeah. So what year is this now? Is this into 22? Yep, that would have been 22, Yeah.

So 22 February of 22. So think, think about it that way. August. August. 21 right August 2nd, 2021 Diagnosed August 10th brain surgery. I was actually on a chemo cycle when I ran that that half marathon. I was under chemotherapy at that time. I don't even know what that means. Like as somebody who really hasn't been, I mean, knock on wood, super close to cancer. I lost a college friend to cancer. She's my best friend from college, but I wasn't she didn't live here. I wasn't next to her for her going through her treatments that often. And So what is what does that mean? Like what is the state of your body when you're in a cycle versus out of a cycle?

Yeah. So I don't know that I had any two that were alike. There was consistency, but I don't know that any two were alike #1 and #2 it's different for everybody, but for me, the the there's two or three things that stick out. Nausea is huge. I mean huge. I now know what it feels like to be a pregnant lady and have have tremendous respect for that. But nausea is huge. But as a result of that, you just don't want to eat like ever. So think about depletion, calorie depletion and all the things that come with not enough nutrients in your body to to keep it going completely exhausted.

You just want to sleep all the time. And then, you know, for the only other thing for me that stuck out was my ability to have critical thinking. That was that was a big one for me. So yeah, yeah. I had to had to kind of force myself to to eat and then just hope that you kept it so that you could, you know, go out and move. Move. Yeah. Yeah. So what did training look like for that race? I'll tell you, it was a it was a little what you would call non traditional. Yeah, it was, it was it was non traditional. I mean, I wasn't on any super, super training regiment and it was no coach did a lot of training with the, you know, neighbors run, walk, run, a lot of run, walk, run.

And yeah, it was, it was all over the place. But we got, I got her done. I got her done. Got. Her done. What was the Do you remember the furthest you ran in preparation for that? Because it was it your first half marathon ever? It was my first half marathon ever. Yeah, Yeah, it was my first ever ever. Yeah. I had run the Army 10 Miller several, several times and done other things up to probably 10, but never more than 1010. You know, 10 or below was pretty typical. But that threshold of from 10 to 13 is very different, as you know. But yeah, that, no, that was the first half marathon I'd ever run, and somehow I got it done in two hours and 22 minutes.

Get the heck. I did. I did, yeah. 2/22. 2/22/57. But who's counting? I love. That just this guy. Just that guy, That's nuts. So did you run with somebody else during the race? You said you never run alone too. Like so obviously one of my buddy was important. Yeah, I ran with two local folks here from Carmel. Karen and Tom Kazak ran with me. They're they're neighbors of ours, dear friends of ours. And Tom and I ran all the time before I had moved to Omaha. We ran a lot, never more than six. Was he the one you called to sign up for the race?

Both of them, I had them on speakerphone, yeah. And what? What did your wife say? You know I don't because. That's a why you got to be like nervous like I, I want to support you and I want you to get through this, but I also like really care about your health. Yeah, I, you know, I don't recall her saying anything specifically, but I'm sure she, she probably had an eye roller too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But she but I wasn't going to be told though. Right. You're like, well, this is. I got it. What do I have to lose? Well. Right. What do you have to lose?

Well, and the doctors, I assume were like, well, you're kind of nuts, but if you have can do it. Yeah, no, they advised me not to do it. But I mean, they it's sort of the, the, the, the role. But no, I did it. 2/22/57. 2/22/57. Did you dress as a Princess? I did not. That's. Disappointing. Did not I? I was. I did not process all of the things that could have come along with that experience. No, I'm, I mean, yeah, right. I mean, because the fact that you're just there standing, standing up on your own at a start line, that's true, is amazing. And then you're not walking power walking, you're walk running.

And you had to be running a decent amount of that for 2/22. Yeah. I, I, I think I did more than my fair share. Yeah. OK. And then so describe the feeling of crossing that finish line. I don't remember. Just a blur of. Yeah, yeah, I remember hanging out at the parks and I remember breakfast, but I don't like remember the the whole crossing the finish line thing. Yeah, I don't, I don't really recall it. Is that because of your brain condition? Like, do you not have as great of a memory as you used to or is that just like it was? I mean, there are certain things that are a blur or you know, but I would say my memory is not as good as it once was for sure, but it's as good as once as it ever was.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't. I don't know. I just, I don't know. I don't recall it that way. So you didn't pull out your cell phone at the finish line and sign up for the next race? No, I did not. No, I did not. No, I didn't. I didn't sign up for the next race right away or any of that, no. But still, it's like we're in 2024. That was 22. So you had that had to come. Yeah. What came next? It well, you know, I did do the Indy Mini in 22. So wait, when so is February the Princess? OK. And so then, come May, you did the indie Minnie for the first time.

Yes, I did. Also with Tom and Karen. Yeah, Tom and Karen and a few other folks from the, from the area that, that I, that I knew, we, we all did that together. Yeah. That was in 22. That would have been May 6th. OK, May 6th, 2022. Yeah. That was my mom's. That's my mom's birthday. Oh, it is. It's always her birthday week. And then we were on the mini. I think it dries. Nuts. But yeah, yeah. So I've done any mini three Times Now. OK, 'cause it would have been 2223 and then obviously this. Year. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. This year it might be a good opportunity just to talk about this year the since we brought it up really quickly because you kind of did it on a whim this year.

I did, I was signed up for the mini but the the the whim part was was pushing. Yeah, so Jason did Ainsley's Angels. Yes. With with Jennifer Connor, who was recently on this podcast. Yes, yeah, Jennifer, you know, formed a connection through through her, her profession that attached her to the opportunity to to push. And the individual she spoke to said, you know, if you can rally some folks together, do it and put together a little team, if you will. And she sent me a text message and said, hey, I, I'm not going to say mandatory volunteered, but she's like, I got, I got something for us.

And I was like, sure, let's do it. So we did it and it was, it was a cool experience. I I really enjoyed it. Well, I'm so glad that she told you to ask me to help you make a shirt for the race because I got to make Jason a shirt. And it said, it said brain cancer survivor. And I forget the exact word. It was something like, I'm, you know, I'm a brain cancer survivor and I'm pushing somebody else. Like, are you hurting? That's what I put at the top. Are you hurting because I'm a brain cancer survivor and I'm also pushing someone else.

And and then we put AQR code on there for your New York City Marathon fundraiser, which is so cool. Yeah. So what what? What did people say to you during? The, you know, I did have more than I thought there would be slow down and say what a cool shirt and I needed to read that or I needed to see that it was super cool. The QR code did work by the way. That's great. QR codes on shirts is a tricky business. It worked. It worked. Yeah, we got, we got some, some donations for the National Brain Tumor Society to support, you know, that journey, New York City journey from from the shirt and it was a win.

Awesome. And would you, would you push again? Are you going to do it again? What I am probably going to do next year is form a national brain Tumor Society. Team. And take take that approach or route. We have such a great community here and the indie Minnie's just got so much to offer, a lot of energy, a great crowd, etcetera that it feels to me like by pushing and supporting that it was an eye opener say hey, this is this is a an opportunity. To do Yeah, To do more for an organization that obviously means so much to you, right. What is the National Brain Tumor Society?

What do they? Do Yeah. So I I'm very involved with two organizations, the American Brain Tumor Association. OK, because yeah, I'm looking at your shirt and your. Hat Yeah, yeah. American Brain Tumor Association and National Brain Tumor Society, right. And both are organizations that support patient advocacy research. They fund a lot of research, both of them, and just support people across, across the globe really, but here in the US specifically on multiple levels that are either facing brain tumors and or going through the journey of a brain tumor or brain cancer and the families associated with them. So both great. The ABTA has a little bit longer history.

It's based out of Chicago, which is how the connection to the Chicago Marathon comes out. It was founded in 1973 and it's so it's been around quite a while, The NBTS based out of Boston, so maybe one day that we'll see a connection there. It was formed in 2008 through a merger with the National Brain Tumor Foundation and the National Brain Tumor Society. So both great organizations like I said and have had the chance to to support them both financially through running as well as make make a few trips to Washington, DC for the National Brain Tumor Society. Yeah, and you just did that recently right after the mini.

That's right. So after the Mini for the last two years, I've boarded an airplane, gone to DC and done what's called the Race for Hope the very next day. And that's a 5K that raises, you know, really, really great money and significant has a significant contribution to the organization with a lot of meeting. But the day after, which would be Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is an event called Head to the Hill, where you represent your state as a constituent member across the House and the Senate by visiting, you know, Congressman, senators, politicians, if you will, and asking them for support around topics that include this this mission associated with brain tumors and brain cancer.

So funding for research and other related things. Yeah, because how does that affect you with insurance and all that crazy crap? I mean, because, I mean, we all know it's not great in this country, so. Yeah, you know, it's broken, no doubt about it. You know, for somebody who's had cancer of any kind in particular, just think about life insurance. If you don't have it, you're not getting it 'cause you would have a pre, pre-existing condition. When you have a terminal diagnosis like brain tumor, brain cancer, you've got a choice. You're at a fork in the road. Do you continue to work and if you continue to work, there's limitations and struggles that come along with that or do you not work and fall back on Social Security disability, Medicaid, Medicare, combination of it all, etcetera, which then limits your ability to, you know, support your family from an income perspective and all of the the dynamics and challenges that come with that.

So think about it this way, first day on a job? Are you even signed up for insurance yet? Right. Do you do you know? What fork in the road do you take? Do you go? Do you go back to work or or believe that you can go back? To work, I mean being a well enough to. Go back to work, right? Or do you fall back on, on, on the system? You know, the system's got flaws in its design and it can take weeks and months to get approved for those things to retroactively, you know, help you out. I made the choice not to use the the system or the resources in place from the system and made the choice to to show some grit, I guess if you will, and go back to work.

I'm glad I did. But you know, the advocate to advocate, head for the hills to really say, hey, getting the the systems, the systems broken. Yeah, like, you shouldn't have to feel like you need to go back to work. You should have some support at least until you get to a stage where you're like, OK, like I want to go back to work. Yeah. And that, that that's a possibility that's there. But it's not easy to go, you know, to cycle on and off of of the of the process in the system. You know, those folks have a a lot of responsibilities. All I can say with the number of things that they have to do in the way that they care for, you know, citizens like you and I across the country, there are different focuses for every one of them.

And, you know, continuing to beat the drum and make that trip is is significantly meaningful and I think important for me. I don't know, maybe one day I'll have to run for a political position myself and help fix the system. I don't know. But it's it's got work work to do. Well, it's a good thing you got that grit. Somebody's got to and I know there's a lot of people that want it and I see it as an awesome responsibility. If I have the ability to do it, to go, to go, it's a, it's a, it's a responsibility. At this point, it's really incredible that you do.

That, yeah. And run a 5K after you just ran 1/2 marathon. Yeah, that was cool. So that's the second year in a row I've done that and they have a survivor category. Oh yeah. Yeah. So this year I won, won the survivor category, which was super cool. Congratulations. The male, the male survivor category. There's a female survivor category as well. And ran next to this, this young lady who's also a survivor for for a good two miles. And then boy, she just, she took off like a lightning bolt. Wow. She was, she was fast. Oh my gosh, she was fast. I think she ended up at like 645 mile.

Oh yeah, OK. She was smoking fast. Yeah, yeah. I came in at like 7 O two or something like that. That's legit. It was legit my PR pace for a 5K722. Yeah, it was legit. It was fun after pushing a chair the the day before, I thought. I'm. Free. Look at that. Yeah, that was, it was great training around the day before. But jeez, for sure, although it wasn't as bad as I thought, like the heaviness of the chair, those things are very efficient. They're well designed and and yeah. Yeah, thankfully, 'cause I was, I didn't know what to expect. So you know, going into the track.

Yeah. How did you, how did you guys who was pushing at the time you or Jennifer? Well, so we had a third, third teammate. Oh, you did. Yeah, I didn't realize that. A very experienced woman who has done it several times. And so we cycled on and off as three. But the young man we were pushing had some he was he, he, he had a lot of muscle. Yeah, OK. And so you're. Like, OK, so good sized young man, but it took all the three of us to get that chair up that hill, up that hill and onto the track. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it took me a minute to realize I was the one pushing because my friend Ashley and I traded my off my own.

And so I realized, oh, I'm going to be pushing when we go on the track. And my strategy was I, I just said to Ashley, I go OK, Like as we start going down, I was like, I'm going to use this momentum and I'm just going to go as fast as I can down and up just to get it done. And I did and it and then my heart rate was like through the roof when I got to the top of the other side. But I was like, I just want to see if we can use this momentum. But our, you know, we had a young 9 year old girl so much different in terms of weight.

So yeah. Yeah, I'd say there would would have been a little weight difference. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man. Great experience though and so cool to see so many local people. Yeah, it's such a fun race. I I love. It yeah, we're we're, we're going to see you again next year, whether it's pushing or not. We're going to come with a with a crowd. So when you do the Hope, the Run for Hope, do you have a special shirt that designates that you're a survivor or OK, Yeah, like does it say survivor on the back? OK, that's good. As it does because you're like, that's really neat.

Yeah, the Race for Hope has a survivor. Survivor shirt. Dedicated survivor shirt. Yeah, and this hat, That's a survivor. It does. That's pretty cool. I see the 2024. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So, Survivor, how? How does that? What does that word mean to you? Oh, that's a that's a good question. You know, I don't think I've ever thought about it that way. As in, like what does the one word survivor mean to me versus processing it through a series of other ways. So when I think a survivor, I think about survivorship as being full of lessons or topics and they change from day-to-day and moment to moment or through a milestone events.

And for me, when I started thinking about survivor in the in the hospital and, and recovery and, and having a lot of philosophical conversation with Terrell, I started keeping what you would call maybe as a journal. And you know, what did, what did each day bring when I thought about survivorship? So I documented 42 thoughts with 42 days. Turns out I had 42 staples in my head with irony to keep it together. And so, you know, it's just everyday changed a a little bit for me. I posted all 42 on Facebook and that was kind of my outlet, if you will, to, to process the, the idea of survivorship.

It was not a public open forum type thing. It was like, hey, if you're a friend or you, you know, belong to my community, I'm, I'm talking to you. And I still do it. I still do it, you know, every week or so. Last week was week one of, you know, marathon training cycle for fall. And, and I kind of posted something there about survivorship, if you will, and it was around hydration and just use that topic to kind of highlight that. But I remember the very first post of the 42 and it was titled Life, Laugh and Love. And there were just everyday, you know, little things to think about and consider.

So yeah, I don't know. It's, yeah, it's a, it's a good question. But yeah, we'll see. We'll see. It's a, it's an evolution. Survivorship's an evolution. Well, and you mentioned earlier, you know, getting a terminal diagnosis, so no matter what, if you have brain cancer, is it always a terminal diagnosis? You know that's, that's a let's put it this way. Terminal is a statistical term, right? Think about odds and when the odds are stacked against you and you think about terminal, terminal says that the lifespan short, right? Hey, you will come to a term and you have an expiration date and and we all do.

But in the case of, you know, my diagnosis, which is called a GB M or grade 4 GBM glioblastoma, you, you're lucky to have 16 to 18 months, you know, by statistical diagnosis. And so that's kind of where the, the idea of terminal comes in. But there you, I mean, there's all kinds of diagnosis that come along with cancer and other diseases that can be called terminal. We made the choice as a family early on not to use the word terminal. We wanted to manifest something different and continue to manifest or something different. I mean, I remember looking at the, the doctor, the chemo oncologist that I worked with and, you know, she said, Hey, this, this isn't good.

And this is, you know, what we would consider worst case scenario. And, you know, they had to have very honest conversations. And I, I said, you know, I appreciate that, but it's not any more terminal than you and I leaving here today and getting hit by a dump truck. Like the odds, there's odds and everything we do. And so I'm just not going to accept that. And I'm going to make a different choice to to think about it differently. Wow. Yep. That's so powerful. How have you, how have you taken care of your mental health through this process? Like do they immediately provide you with resources like with a therapist?

Or because I'm just thinking, how in the hell does a human being process all of that so quickly? So no, the answer is no, they don't provide resources immediately. That's part of the issue with this, you know, small but yet mighty community is resources. I mean, less than 1% of the human adult population will ever experience this. And, and as a result of that, the resources are limited. So, you know, MB, TS, A/B, TA and, and other, you know, smaller local organizations do their best to offer resources, I think do a hell of a job, but they're just, they're just not out there, you know, not like other types of, of cancer, whether it be, you know, prostate cancer, breast cancer, etcetera.

So it's the easy answer for you is no, that that the resources weren't weren't there and weren't easily accessible and available. There's always medication that people can provide you for depression and anxiety, that type of stuff. I made a choice early on not not to go that path and have still yet never gone that path. And so for me, it's a community of supporters, you know, nuclear at home, wife, amazing individual, strong kids, family just lifting you up all the time spiritually, You know, I, I just thank God every day for the ability to deal with it. But it's a constant ask, a constant prayer.

And then running. Running just allows me the ability to escape it and continue to escape it. You know, the, the chemical disposition that the body experiences from running or cycling, or I just call it endurance during sports. I think is provides a gift and the ability to process and think through things at a different level. And if you've never done it, you don't, you don't know it, right? You don't get it. And but when you have done it, it's it's different. It's different, very different. And so tough questions here. My friend who I mentioned that I lost to cancer, like the last text exchange I had with her, she was literally like, hey, yeah, I'm just planning my funeral.

And and I just, oh, God, I just didn't even know how to how to think about that. She had a hell of a funeral. She had cupcakes, champagne, hot dogs. Yeah. But like, when you're faced with something like this, I appreciate that. You're like, no, we're we're going to manifest something different than that. But did you also have to plan for that? Yeah, yeah. I never went to the extent and haven't gone to the extent to detail or map it out. You know, that's a responsibility. At some point, I I'm going to have to process and and get involved in and with it. It's not if it's when for all of us, right.

And So what you want that to look like, feel like, and what you want the experience to be is, is completely up to each and every one of us. I've I've not avoided it. I just haven't done it interestingly enough through this journey or process here locally. And and Carmel, when we moved back, I ran into an old friend of mine and he's a he's a doctor here in town. And he said, I want to introduce you to to somebody that is going through the same battle you are, who was diagnosed a month after I was, who also has kids who was the same age, etcetera.

And so I became very good friends with with a woman here in town and we spent a lot of time together. And she has somebody who to this day, I would call my battle buddy through through the cancer journey. Fortunately, we lost her. But I remember sitting on Sundays with her and her husband, my wife and I, and having these conversations. And she had one hell of a funeral, I'll tell you. And it was a celebration and a party. Yeah, it was cool. It was super, super cool for what you would want to consider cool, I guess. But but but like it, it was good.

It was good. Well done. And she her journey just ended differently than mine. And but yeah, that's a real thing. It's a real thing. We, you know, for three years now, through her vision, have celebrated her life and the meaning of this thing we called brain cancer and brain tumors through Kelly's kegs and eggs. Oh, that's for her. Oh, my sister and her husband did that this year, and I knew that you were there. So, yeah, tell us. OK, Tell us all about that. Yeah, so Kelly and I, as I said, got connected and really formed a quick, quick relationship and we're able to bond over so many things.

But, you know, just being able to process what we were doing and how and why and have somebody that understood was, was like essential. Yeah, essential is a must have a need. And she she was able to to do that for me. And I think I was able to do that for her. But I remember sitting at the coffee shop one day and she said, I'm going to, I'm going to start a, a 5K and we're going to form this, this, this thing. And she knew I like to run and. And yeah, Kelly's Kegs and Eggs was born like sitting at the coffee shop. And, you know, she had such a strong tie to the community through her business with Clothing for A Cause.

And, you know, born and raised here and just, you know, so many people love what's. Her What's her last name? McLaughlin. Yeah, Van Abel is also maybe the way that others know her. She's a caramel kid. But yeah, had a had a small business here in town and gave back to the community on on so many different levels through clothing for A cause. And yes, so we there was born a nonprofit, Kelly's Kegs and Eggs. And through year three, there's been 100,000 plus dollars raised through silent auction, the 5K and donations to support the American Brain Tumor Association and local folks through through scholarships and other things.

So yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. Really cool. And when is that race? It's always in May, OK, Always in May. I don't know what day it will be next year, but it's in May. Was it after the mini? Yeah, OK, well, I have to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dumb question. Yeah, 'cause that's yeah. Yeah, Yeah. OK. Yeah, that's really cool. That's really special. It it's for three years now, it's just been like a a super cool parking lot party. I was. Going to say well there are probably kegs and eggs there. Yeah, yeah, great food truck with with good food and we held it at A at the same place beer brewery the last three years and bring your lawn chairs, live music and it's just been so cool.

That's really neat. Yeah, low key. Yeah, it's super cool. And yeah. I'll have to participate in some way, shape or form next year. Oh yeah, it's it's fun, local and the energy is great. Yeah, I'll say that. Gosh, I bet. So, Speaking of community, can we talk about the sloths? Yeah. Can we talk about how the sloths came to be? How did you get connected with Jennifer Condor and Amanda Looper? Yeah, so. And is Jill, is Jill part of the sloth or is it? I wasn't sure. Actually, I mentioned I was like. Yeah, so when I decided to run my first marathon, which would have been Chicago last year.

OK. I knew. I knew I had a tall order without a doubt, had had definitely had, you know, my fair share of of half marathons at that point. I think I'm up to 12 or 14 now, but since 2021, but official, if you will. I mean, we we all know through the training cycles. And then you run. A bunch. Oh yeah. But I decided to run the Chicago Marathon. Did not get a, a bib through the, you know, the traditional method, if you will. And so asked for the opportunity through the American Brain Tumor Association to, to go the fundraising route and, and accomplish that.

But I know I just had this tall order and I was like, OK, I need accountability. That's what I need. And so Jill lives in my neighborhood. Jill. What's Jill's last name? Holzclaw. OK. Jill Holzclaw. Is she OK? So how did you? Meet so Jill lives in in our neighborhood, actually lives right behind Karen and Tom. Oh, so funny. Who was mentioned earlier. Yeah. And Jill works as a school teacher at the same school my wife works at. And so I've I've known Jill as a neighbor for a while years, I guess, and on and off. And and she's she's a runner. I knew that.

And so I sent her a note one day and said, hey, I need some accountability. That's what it boils down to. And so I've got these long runs and would it be OK if I asked you to join me in, in, in some long runs here and there if it works out? And she's like, yeah, no, no problem. And so she sent a note one day and said, look, I do this Thursday morning run with some ladies I know on a regular basis. You're, you're welcome to join us. I was like, OK, well, when I said OK, that was a commitment and the commitment became accountability.

So I started showing up every week on Thursday and over multiple weeks, both Jill, Amanda, Ashley and Jennifer, who who were all part of this, you know, Thursday run group, just kind of accepted me and adopted me. And yeah, one thing led to another in the sense that it's become a permanent fixture for me. Like, and it's great for me 'cause I don't like to run by myself anymore for obvious reasons. Two of the two of the women are medical professionals and Amanda works with traumatic brain injury patients. Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah, yeah, she does. So she call it, call it guides me periodically, like I have trouble hearing sometimes.

And and so she, you know, she'll, she'll throttle me back every now and then, which is good. But now they, it's, it was really all about accountability partners and has continued to to be accountability and it's just a safety net for me too. Yeah. Yeah, and you guys get up, you run early. Five. Yeah, we're we're five o'clockers. And sometimes before. Some depends on the mileage, but yeah, yeah, today was track day and we started at 5:00 today. Yeah, we're done by 6, but yeah. Yeah, there's also Tummy Tummy Tuesday. I loved the Amanda put that. Did you see that? Yeah, yeah. It was like, heck yeah, it is too damn hot for.

It's been hot lately. Real hot, yeah. Hot and humid, Yeah. Yeah, so it's just incredible. I I think, you know, anybody listening to this and actually running, a lot of people do listen to this while they run. It's like, yeah, if you feel like you're hurting during your workout, like how, how could you be like, oh, this sucks. I mean, you can, everybody can, you know, but. Yeah, we, we've gotten, so Amanda and Karen combined with myself formed A-Team this year to run the Chicago Marathon. So we have a, a local team, if you will. And the way that it's worked out for us here locally and recently is that we're all on, you know, different training paths, if you will, have different coaches and, and, and other related things.

But we show up and we start together, gotcha. And, and we finish together, gotcha. That's kind of the, the, the double take, if you will. All right, we're here. Yeah, we might have a little bit different mileage or different workout or different program, but we we start and finish together. OK, that makes sense because it would be hard with a coach, right? You got a plan that you're going to work on, right? And so yours is different than mine. Today's my easy day. But you've got some speed or I don't. Know yeah well it it turns out that most of us if not all of us have long runs same day speed the same day that turns that works out pretty well and you could.

Always ask your coach to be like, hey, this is how I want to do it. Yeah, yeah, you can, you know, flip flop things a bit, but yeah, yeah, we, you know, track day, like today, for example, it's like a slingshot, you know, one zoom, zoom, one person's flying by, the other, etcetera. But yeah, works out good. So yeah, they've been amazing supporters for me and great accountability partners. There's always a lot of fun, great conversation. Oh, somebody's always poking at somebody, which is fun. It's just, yeah, it's cool. Where did sloths come from? Yeah, so you know, the the slot thing started as kind of a joke.

There's some pretty, these are some talented women. If you know them, they're they're very talented. Go back and listen to Jennifer's episode and then whenever Amanda lets me interview her, she doesn't think she's very impressive. I'm like, everybody has a story. Amanda, you are amazing. Every one of those women are impressive. And you know, I get, I get poked a lot from from from folks I know. And they're like, why do you run with all women? I'm like, well, I'm going to tell you, A, these women bring their game B, they show up and if they say they're going to be there, they're there, they're on time and their business, like they are all business, right?

And so we were running one day and Jill, Jill's quick, she's very quick. She was kind of leading the pack. And I was, I remember hanging out in the back and Amanda fell back and Jennifer fell back. Jill was kind of up front and it became kind of a joke. It was like, well, us sloths are going to hang out back here. And Ashley was actually up towards the front with Jill. Who's, I don't know, Ashley. Oh, Ashley's great, too. Yeah, Yeah. Another very talented young lady, Mom here in town, another school teacher. She brings it. They. They bring it. But so it became this kind of joke, the rabbits and the sloths.

And then several weeks after I got a text, I remember getting a text from from Amanda and Jennifer and they're like, hey, what size shirt do you wear? It's like a large. And I had, I was having a little pool party at the house that day and they showed up with the pool party and they had bought these sloth jackets. Jackets. Yeah, yeah, Spree, Sprint, whatever They brought it. Yeah. They were down at an Expo or something and bought these jackets and showed up at the house and they're like, all right now we've formed this team called the Sloths, and it's just kind of been of a joke ever since, but.

Oh my gosh, does it say sloths on it? Oh, it's. Just full of sloths, little patterns of sloths. Yeah, yeah. OK, yeah, that's amazing. I need to see I I need a photo of that. Yeah, so now we've got this little sloth jacket and you know, on a windy day or cold day, you'd, you, you'll show up with your sloth jacket on, but. I love sloth. I have a sloth head cover for my driver and golf for my golf bag and when I first got it my husband got it for me and my oldest stole it and slept with it for a while as like a stuffy and then recently my little one discovered it and so now it's in my house somewhere.

I'm like I need a new head cover I think. Or just get them a sloth. You could do a lot. Sloths are pretty popular these days. They are. They are. Yeah. So the joke is we're all going to dress as sloths or some sloth related thing. I don't know. I'll let them figure that out for the dopey. OK. So in January? There is a sloth. Oh, and what movie is that? That works at a desk. Utopia. Zootopia. Zootopia. That's a great movie. Have you seen it? Yeah, I think it's a good one. Yeah, probably have, I think. I've seen them all. I think I have two.

Yeah, that's that's one that I was like, I actually enjoyed watching, which I tend to remember. That goes, yeah, I think he like worked in a prison or something or I don't. Yeah, I don't. Oh, no. He worked at the the BMV. Oh, the BMV. And so the sloth is like. That's what it was. Maybe it just felt like a prison, because it was, yeah. Those go hand in hand. Yeah. But yeah, so we're all running the Dopey in January and I imagine we'll have some sloth related thing. So you're doing, so you did Chicago last year, first marathon, and then this year you're doing New York.

Chicago and New York. And Chicago, right? Of course you are. And then dopey January 25. OK, cool. Geez, that's amazing. How was Chicago of last year? How was your first marathon? It was great up to mile 16. Was it hot in Chicago? No, Chicago had nice weather. Last year it was cooler, The weather was beautiful. I was, yeah, I was doing great. Felt very prepared. And then if. I mean, if you've done a a world major, which that was my first, the energy is just incredible. Yeah, my family was there. I got to see him in three places, which is cool. Awesome. Yeah, I know they had a hustle.

To me it's a it's a sport just doing that. Yeah, you know, million people. And it was, it was, it was incredible. I bid it at mile 16. It's trying to get water. Oh, like literally. Yeah, and hit the Dixie cups and, you know, it's just, it's just like a a sea of Dixie cups. So you're slipping and it's like, might as well be like banana. Peels, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I learned. I learned a lot that day. Jeez. So are you like bleeding? I wasn't bleeding but but I had to run, walk, run for a while. I was on a four hour pace that turned into five, but we got her done.

Yeah, my first two marathons were about 5 hours in Chicago. You know, I'm just not worried about how fast I go anymore it. Shouldn't be? It's, it's OK, Yeah. And I'm saying that out loud to remind myself. I understand, I do the same thing. I have to. No one cares. No one cares, no one cares how fast you run. It does not matter. And but you're still, you know, when you have that competitiveness, It's hard. It's hard. Yeah, I super ultra hyper competitive, especially with myself. Exactly. Yeah. It's like I don't necessarily care about competing with other people. I care about just being better than I was the last time I did.

Whatever. And when you have the energy of those crowds, it's so hard to like, say, OK, I'm going to slow down. Yeah, but we just did I say we, Jennifer and I are running the series this year. So we did the Shamrock, the half and we'll. Do the four. We just did the half and I, I tried real hard, real hard. We both. Did no or to beat yourself? To slow down. Oh, to slow down got. It the goal was to slow down. Here I am my. The goal was my competitive, yeah, the goal, the goal was to slow down, yeah. So we, I think we did better.

She helped me do better. I did better. But. Yeah, it's, it's hard. It was hard when I first started working with a coach to be like, OK, here's your easy run. It's going to be at this pace. And I'm like, huh? Yeah. What do you mean? And it was hard to train myself to run that slow. Yeah. And now I love it. It's like this. I do enjoy the excuse to slow down like somebody's making me slow down. Yeah, it's your. Your brain wants to tell you it doesn't make sense. Yeah, your brain's like, I can't possibly do this when I've run this pace for most of my mind.

Yeah, especially mine. Stop it, whatever. Yeah, yeah. So I'm I'm working on slowing down. That's good. Yeah. That Yeah, sloths. Sloths. Yes. Yeah, you can't be a sloth and run fast. That just doesn't doesn't compute. That that defeats the the. Purpose, right? Yeah, it does. Is this Chicago series? Is that new? No, I've at least known about it for a few years. I'm sure it's been going a while. The The the cool thing about the series, or the reason I decided to do it, was so that I could be guaranteed to spot the next year. OK. So you do the series this year and then you can run again, OK.

Yeah. So you're just going to keep, you're just going to keep, keep running marathons. No sense in stopping. No. So then you've got Dopey, so you're up leveling the game, up leveling. So anybody listening who's not Disney, Adobe is a 5K, next day is the 10K, next day is 1/2. And then the final one is marathon. That's right. Which I learned that Jennifer did her first marathon as part of Adobe, which I thought was wild. Yeah, that is wild. Yeah, it's like, Oh well, I guess I'll just tack on the biggest race I've ever done at the end of this. Yeah. But yeah, so now you're doing all that.

I am, yeah. We just thought it'd be a a great way to, as a family, go spend some time at Disney over Christmas, New Year's break. And it's kind of a bucket list item after running the Princess, right? And so I was like, yeah, what the hell, Let's just do it. Do it so Karen's doing it. Oh, Karen too. She signed up We we have traveled a lot with Karen and Tom and their kids as as families and so. Oh, that's so great. So she's, she's signed up. I'm signed up. I Jennifer signed up, Amanda signed up it. I don't know if it'll be a one and done for me, but it's it's definitely going to be a one.

Yeah, got to, got to do it. I can't wait to see your costumes. It's not a cheap date as you can. Yeah, well, I started through this podcast actually like meeting. I literally my first real foray into Disney. I met this woman in in the Orlando airport. I was happened to be there. I forget which weekend it was, but I was on my way to Florida. Obviously I was in Florida. I was on my way to Naples rather. And I met this woman. She ended up being like the admin of the Facebook group for Dopey. So she was like the right person to meet and she starts telling me all this stuff and I'm just, my mind is like blown about these like subcultures within the sport of running.

And there's so many different ones Disney like. Then you talk about ultra and trail and. Like. The pockets of just kind of crazy stuff. Yeah, I, I, I'm amazed to your to your point, how many different subcultures there are. I did not realize this Disney thing was like at the level it is. Right where you have to. I was like, oh, maybe I'll do that one day. Well, it's like, well then you better know exactly when you're supposed to be on the website or whatever to get a spot. If it weren't for Jennifer and Amanda telling me, I would have never known. I knew that it had like a a super hyper competitive awareness a little bit.

We had a niece that worked it. She was on the Disney internship program a couple years and she was always like, yeah, this is a a big deal. I don't know if I got lucky the day I signed up for the half when I did that, but I remember that being like a chore like. And so it was just like, it was like signing up for concert tickets to, you know, get into this, this deal, you know, this dopey, I'm going to call it a deal because, boy, it's going to be a deal. I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. So whether it's one and done or what it's, it's a bucket list.

Yeah. But yeah, you mentioned Ultra. When we lived in Omaha, Omaha is a huge ultra community and was never exposed to that and learned a lot about that when we were there. So yeah, it's when you get like W something. About it starts to. Yeah, Changes, Yeah, it's a like Omaha to Colorado and West. It's different, different deal, Yeah. I know, I think, you know, it's like, oh, I think I'm cool being a marathoner. Like. OK, We'll have you run 50 miles or 100 miles or 200 miles or. Yeah, the neighbor I had live right next door to me. He went to Utah and did 260.

He did the 260, right? Yeah, I was just. Like the what? What? Yeah. People runners are just nuts, and that's why I love them. Yeah. What do you have outside of, I mean, Dopey's obviously a little bit of a next level, right, With a marathon after all the other races? What else? What else is on your bucket list in quotations? Like what other kinds of things you want to do to kind of, I don't know, test yourself and. I could foresee myself ending up shifting over to triathlon at some point. Was a was a strong swimmer as a kid. Oh yeah, I guess with the diving and kind of the yeah.

Even, you know, like high school swim team, not of course, not Carmel high school swim team caliber. But yeah, swam as a as a kid. I had done a few do athlons early on in high school and through college run, bike run. So I don't know, maybe maybe a triathlon 1/2 or half Ironman or something like that would be kind of a a next level experience for me. Yeah, that's a whole nother world, yeah. There's just something about endurance that excites me. I mean, whether it's battling cancer, raising kids, you know, elevating your career, like life is full of opportunity and achievement, but you've got to have grit.

And with grit, you just got to decide that, OK, this is an endurance sport, right? No free lunch. I just got to keep chipping away at it. Got to find a rhythm, disciplined approach to make it work. With accountability, there's going to be ups and downs, failures, success and reward. If I get to the end of the line here and it's just, you know, endurance, all about endurance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, parenting is is an endurance. Yeah, it's, it is. It is. When you've got a couple teenagers. Well, I got I got one official and one quickly working his way into it. All right, so you had 15/15/12.

10 be 15 next, next month, OK. And then November I'll have a 13. Year old 13. OK, so almost. Yeah. Yeah. Wild. Yeah. Do they run it all with you? Do you so? All kids have participated at some level, at the 5K level in particular. Even the 1010 year old, the soon to be 15 year old Ethan. My son Ethan, he is an extremely naturally gifted runner. I would have a strong desire and make dad real happy if he leaned in a little bit and gave it some effort. And he will at a minimum experience cross country this year. He's going to be mandatory volunteered and I want him just to at least try give it a shot.

Give it a shot. But yeah, incredibly gifted young man Jill, her son Graham, another incredibly gifted young man there. There's a lot of really talented young people around here. When I when I look at the running community, we've got a few other kids in the neighborhood. But I mean, we're just so lucky that they all start, you know, with pups and and different programs around the area that can expose them to the sport and then allow them to make their, you know, their own choice. But yeah. Yeah, that's why I'm so passionate about Beyond Monumental and our Monumental Kids movement, you know, helping a lot of underprivileged kids learn about this, like learn how to run and learn about nutrition and, and then for my own family, yeah, my daughter Sydney, my older daughter, she ran her first mile at the Monumental Mile.

That's cool. When she was, she was three, which now that my, I have a three-year old, I'm like, I can't believe we took her to run a mile. Like I, we're going to attempt to have Sloan and Sydney run a mile this Saturday. The 22nd is the monumental mile. And so we'll see how that goes. I don't know. But you know, you just, I'm just trying to introduce them to it. Not like, you know, get out my stopwatch and be like, let's go. But just I want them to be exposed to it. And, you know, love what I love. I may be great, but also it's like, OK, I got to take a step back too and not be too.

Yeah, yeah, we have a two week rule at our house. OK, When when a a kid says I want to do this or I want to try this or whatever the case may be, it's like, OK, here's the deal. You come back in two weeks. I want you to think about it solid 2 weeks, whether it's soccer, baseball, whatever it is playing instrument and if you're still interested in this in two weeks, we're signing up, but then you're committed. Yeah, I like that rule. Like, you're not, you're not getting away from it. You're not you're you're committed. Yeah, yeah, I've, you know, that's the struggle too, with, I think being in this area of the country, like, I don't know, kids are signed up for all kinds of stuff so young.

And I've tried hard not to do that and, you know, not to. But then you're like, well, I want her to try stuff. But then, yeah, when she's like, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm like, well, mommy has paid money for this whole month, so we're doing it till the month's over. And then if you still want to stop, we'll stop kind of thing. Or yeah, if she asks me multiple times to try something, then it's like, OK, clearly she didn't. Just on a whim her friend said something, now she wants to do it. It's like, no, she keeps thinking about it. That's fine, right?

Yeah. We've, we've had synchronized swimming, we've had tennis, baseball, soccer, basketball. I mean, we've I I love the exposure they get to it, all right. But yeah, it's not a cheap date. No, sure. Isn't and once the commitment's made, we're going to see it through. Yeah, yeah. So are you going to write a book? I don't. I don't know. I'm not a strong writer. Well, you get somebody else to do it. I could, I don't know. I have a lot of thoughts. I have them captured, I think mostly continue to capture them. I'm not, I don't, I don't know what I what I could see is an opportunity to write a book.

I'll put it that way. But beyond the book, if there ever were a book, what I would really like to see is the ability to do some public speaking engagements and try, whether through nonprofits, corporate America, et cetera, just to show folks a different perspective on life and take the roof off the building while we're doing it. Yeah, you could do that. That would be of more interest to me. I know a lot of people start by writing a book. Right, so then they can go on the tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know, I'm not sure how all that works or to get into it, but I've been to my fair share of conferences and events and seeing, you know, folks show up and they're trying to communicate something.

And while I'm, while I'm late sitting there trying to digest what they're saying, I'm just like, wow, they just didn't connect. So how many other people are they not connecting with and what could I say differently to connect? Yeah. So those are the types of things that I process. Yeah. So what do you manifest? What do you see? Like, do you see, like, OK, I'm on a stage, a huge ass conference with like thousands of people. Yeah, I'm going to tell you this morning, I thought about this and I was listening to a theme song of mine this morning, which then carried me into, you know, this whole idea of what I see or manifest.

So the theme song that I was listening to is a song by the band Jackal. And the song is called Push Comes to Shove and Jesse James Dupree, the lead singer and his band Jackal or an amazing band that I met years ago working for Harley-Davidson Motor Company, became close and dear friends with Jesse. Still am today. Been to several concerts. They play hard, they play well. They're just incredibly talented musicians. You may have seen the show Full Throttle Saloon on TV at one point, but the band Jackal is is is just, they're amazing. Just so much energy, but when you know, I need like a push and this morning was a push.

I was a little track workout had eight intervals that I had to do and and hustle. I needed to push. And so I turn on the song called push comes to shove. And you know, the song talks about a push and when you need a push. The song refers to if you ever saw the music video went to it. Then I'm standing with my toes over the edge and I'm not worried about a push coming down above. I'm ready for you when a push comes to shove. That's kind of the lyrics. And so I was thinking about Jason, you need a push. If you want to do this talk, this talk thing, you need a push.

What's that look like? What's that feel like? And so I saw myself standing on stage in this big room and telling everybody to get up off their ass. Like, OK, it's time to get off your ass, people. You listened to way too many of these speeches and these big conferences and everybody just kind of sets, they've got their laptops open, their phones going, and they're not paying attention. So get off your ass. We're going to split, split the room in half. And I want 1/2 of the room to face and look at the other half of the room, right? And I don't know why we're here today, but let's say we're here because we're talking about brain cancer and brain tumors, the MBTS, the ABTA at a big convention or something, right?

Like we're here and we're here and we're trying to show spirit, like spirit's a big word. How do you deliver spirit? We are here in the spirit of something, whether it's a work conference, a nonprofit thing. But we're here in the we're in, we're here in spirit. So I want both these room, I want this room split down the middle on both sides looking at each other and I want to get the crowd so charged. I look at 1/2 the room and it becomes natural for the room to go back and forth with a challenge and the challenge looks and feels like this. Side A we got Spirit, yes we do, we got spirit how about you?

Side B we got Spirit. Yes we do, we got spirit, how about you? I want that thing to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to the point I had to tell him to shut up. I want the roof off the building. But that's the type of energy that I think people need when they listen to these speaking engagements. Like get off your ass. Show me the spirit. Show me the why, why, Why are we here? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I could see it. I can see it. I can see it, especially if you, I don't know if you tell your story even before that or part of it, because it's like God, people sitting at a conference, man, I've been a mania conference.

Me too. Yeah, me too. Yeah, it's hard. So I don't know. I need a push. But but yeah, you need Terrell. You need to bring Terrell on the road. Oh, Terrell and I would be like a that'd be a that'd be a dynamic duo, a shit show and a circus, but it would be cool. Oh, I can't. I never thought about that. A bank robber and a brain cancer survivor walk into a room. Two brain tumor. Survivors. Oh, right, he. Sorry, Terrell, I forgot about that part. Yeah, yeah, that would be amazing. OK, how do we how do we make this happen? OK, people listening.

You all work. You go to conferences. Come on. Let's go just We need a tipping point now. Well, Indianapolis is like the capital of conferences, so there's a lot going on here. There's plenty of opportunity. We are going to find it all. Let's figure it out. This would be amazing. Yeah, it would. Well, I remember. So I first met you the morning of the Carmel Marathon this year, 2024. And we're all standing with my coaches kind of crew and you're there. You got Amanda and Jennifer, right? And you were there. And I can't remember if Jill was there that morning and and a lady comes over with the microphone, right.

She's like, oh, what's this group doing? Hey, everybody. And she like comes up to you and somehow you're the one that gets the microphone and, you know, put in your face. And she kind of, you could just tell she had, I had no idea. And all of a sudden you're like, yeah, I'm here. I'm a brain cancer survive. And we're, I mean, I'm just like, excuse me, what? And I think she felt the same way. She was kind of like, oh shit. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the fact that you have run a marathon, I mean those things you mentioned, like the 1% of people, you know, would experience the brain cancer part of what you've experienced, and then it's like we got 1% of people run a marathon.

Yeah. So you're like, I don't know what that percentage is, but it's very small. Yeah, it is. It's less than 1% of the human adult population that will ever experience it. It's actually, unfortunately, it's disruptive to say it, but brain tumors and brain cancer are more frequently found in children than they are adults. And either either way, it's no bueno, Not good. But it's, it's just a small population and it's a it's, yeah, it's it's sort of weird to say that out loud and hear it, but it is, Yeah. It's like the biker gang you never wanted to be a part of, right? The one.

Percenter's right. I was like, it's this really elite club that nobody. Wants to be at Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll tell you though, once you're in it, it it's it's it's different. Not one you ever wanted to be in. But I'm proud to say I'm in it. I'm proud to say I'm in it. Gosh, I'm proud to know you. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. You are so incredible, Jason I. Appreciate it. That's very kind. Yeah, so anytime it's, you know, these conversations are just so meaningful to me because, well, I get to help Share your story, but it's meaningful to me because then when I feel like I'm going through it, I just have to think about you.

You just call and no. And I'll just no, I'm like Jesus, like if if Jason can get through all of this and and not only that, like you're just your attitude, it's it would be very easy. And I'm sure there's days where it's hard and. It's like there are. Woe is me, but like. Yeah, there are definitely days it's hard, but I've I've always tried really hard not to have the woe as as me attitude. Yeah, it's, it's, I don't know, for some reason it just doesn't feel like the right thing to do. Well, you know what was this? It's not the right, maybe perception is reality type of thing where you're thinking about like the way that your mind is thinking about something then becomes your reality because you're putting it like that's what you're putting in your mind.

Yeah, that's the manifestation and the placebo effect and, and all these other things. Yeah, I, I don't know. I am, again, I just feel like it's a responsibility. And as long as I have the ability to be here and walking this path and the favor of God's grace to do the things I'm doing like you, you got to take advantage of it and pass it, pass it on, pass it through. Yep. Not everybody is presented with that same set of circumstances. So there's a constant reminder of, you know, you've hey, don't, don't, don't abuse it. It's, you know, it's a gift and a responsibility. But I mean, I have, I have terrible days and days just like everybody else.

Yeah. Well, I got to ask you the end of the podcast questions. OK. We've already kind of addressed the questions and the first is what is your favorite running mantra and or song? So we talked about the song. Yeah, push comes to shove, that's my jam. What about a mantra? Like do you think? Are there certain things that you put in your mind as your? As your thing, Yeah. Kelly and I had quite a few mantras that we passed back and forth that I carry with me every day. One that she said and had all the time was we can do hard things so that that sticks out right away from me.

Another one is you know, nobody fights alone and you know I that's that rings true in everything we do. And if you think you can conquer it, our accomplishment on your own probably need an ego check. Yeah, yeah, you. Probably need an ego check. So those, those are two things that stick out to me on a regular basis, yeah. Those are good. And then your next finish line or milestone, I mean milestone obviously being another clean scan. Yes, had a scan yesterday and as I mentioned earlier, my chart gives me those those results. I have an official doctor's appointment tomorrow to review that scan, but the the scan was clean.

OK. So I'm pretty excited about that. Hell yeah. Yeah, hell to the. Hell to the. Yeah. So we look for terms like no progression, stable. Did you ever think in your life that you would want to hear you're not progressing in something? Right. No, this, this is. This is a time when you want. No progress. No progress. No progression, Yeah. Oh, that's so great. I'm so happy to hear that. Yeah. I don't know if clean's ever a word I'll hear or see. I don't know if that exists, but I'll take no progression. Yeah, I'll take stable. So does that mean there's still cancer in your body?

It just doesn't do anything. Ali, that's a question I I don't have the ability to answer. OK, interesting. Yeah. It means there's no new growth with a tumor, OK. And it means that that today in that moment in time, you can, you can say you're in a good spot whether or not there's cancer in my body or where it is and how it develops, etcetera. I don't, I don't have, I don't think I have the ability or scientifically we have the ability to answer that. I mean, of short of a PET scan. And that's the, you know, only can do what it does. But yeah, I never want to jinx myself and say that I'm cancer.

Free. But yet, hey, as long as I don't have a tumor regrowing today. Right then generating moving on. Yeah, we're moving on. Moving forward. Yeah, I've had cancer twice so. Excuse me? Yeah, I've had cancer twice. You're just now telling me this? When did you have cancer the first time? 7-8 years ago, yeah, I had metastatic thyroid cancer the first time and had that removed and radiation. I know I did not have chemo during that. I was one month, two months shy of a five year, five year being clean before cancer was found the second time through the. Brain tumor. So that is why I tell you I I don't know.

Yeah, fucking cancer. Yeah. So yeah. Clean scan. Clean scan. Clean scan. We go train for New York and Chicago. Chicago next finish line. What's today? Are you doing any races this summer? I don't know if they if they fall on, you know, a weekend where there's a long run and it just seems like something close and local and something to do maybe, but nothing specific lined up already. Now the next the next big one would be Chicago 3 weeks later new. York and Are you still in the process of fundraising or did you meet your goal? I have met both goals. When you oh. Yeah, but I'm always in the process.

Of fundraising, yeah. No, I've I've met, I've met both, both goals. Awesome, how can people support you then? I have a A page on A/B TA and MB TSI. Also, if you live near here in the area on the Hagenburg Trail, my daughter and Amanda's daughter built a fairy garden. And oh, I was supposed to ask you about the fairy garden. Yeah, well, thank goodness it came. Up at the Fairy Garden, there's AQR code so you can cruise by the Fairy garden. Check it out. OK, where is it? Hagenburg Trail 146. Yeah, yeah. But where on the Hagenburg? Right behind what would be the water tower.

Yeah, like right when you get on the trail. With maybe 200 meters or something. Yeah, on the left hand. Side What's a fair? What does that entail? They. They you. Have to go look at it. Yeah, you have to go look at it. The weather's beat it up a bit, but it's still there, still there. So yeah, it's. Cool. Yeah, it's just an idea that Anna came up with my daughter one day and she's like, I want to build a fairy garden. And I was like, OK, And she said, can can I come over and help me build the fairy garden? So I called Amanda, Kenneth came over and they went out to the trail and I took a rake and cleaned the spot off and they put rocks in it and little houses and fairy garden things.

And and I was like, well, at the same QR card, QR code, it's on the back of the shirt, Printed it out and put tape on it. I was gonna say. Laminated. It laminated. It. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Little homemade, laminated it, stapled it to a stake and there it is. It they've raised through that fairy garden. Seventeen, 1800 bucks. Get out of town. I just. I also love that your daughter and and Amanda's daughter are friends. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they, they get together as often as you know as they can, but they get along real well. That's great. That's always nice. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Cool. Well, I keep saying I'd like, love to spectate Chicago this year. I didn't get in via the lottery. I don't know that I will be running a fall marathon. I really want to, but seasonal life is such a real thing. So I will. I'll just continue running. Maybe I'll just run like I'm training and see what. Happens what? What if? What if there was an opportunity to add another team member oh God to the ABTA local team? I don't know if there is, but what if? That'd be cool. OK, well, let's think about that. We'll just think we'll just put that over here in the parking lot items.

It's not too late. Oh, OK, OK. We'll parking lot it. We'll parking lot that. Oh, my gosh. Holy cow. All right, Well, that's so cool. Thank you so much for doing this, Jason. Thank you. I'm so glad I've got a chance to get to know you. You inspire the hell out of me, and you're going to inspire the hell out of a lot of people. I tell you what. It's my desire. Yes. It's my desire. Well, thank you to everybody who's listened to this as well and happy running. Yes, happy running boom and remember nobody fights alone and we can do hard things. Hell yeah, mic drop.

Mic drop.

Ally Brettnacher