515 : The Ultra Podcast

S1E10 -- Sk8ter Boi to Family Man | Brad Sawa

• Larry Ryan • Season 1 • Episode 10

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We forego the Ultraman Canada 2021 athlete profile to bring you a UMC Race Director profile.  The full episode is dedicated to my conversation with my co-race director -- Brad Sawa.

But don’t fear, we do have Steve King profiling another athlete in Steve King Stories.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Shout outs and mentions in this episode:

  • Brad Sawa, Ryan Goodman, Evan Johnston, Bones Brigade, Tony Hawke, Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Kevin Harris, Bjorn Sawa, Bergie Sawa, Sigrid Stefanson, The Bench Market , Lucy Ryan, Steve King , Nick Mallett, Sergio Cordeiro, Rick Kent,Andrew Gale, Ingrid Hillhouse, Jack Bruce,Consuela Lively, Trung Lively, Adam Ellenstein, Susan Scarlett, Andre Kajlich, Micheal Brown , Sheryl and David Cobb, Jane Bockus 

Show Contributors:
Host : Larry Ryan
Contributing Raconteur : Steve King
Announcer : Mary Jo Dionne
Production : 5Five Enterprises
Music  :  Run by 331

For show notes and past guests, please visit the Podcast Website: https://515theultrapodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/515TheUltraPodcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or where you get your pods.   

I would like to hear from you and who you think should be interviewed.

Email : 515Ultraman@gmail.com

Support the show

Show Contributors:
Host : Larry Ryan
Contributing Raconteur : Steve King
Announcer : Mary Jo Dionne
Production : 5Five Enterprises
Music  :  Run by 331

For show notes and past guests, please visit the Podcast Website: https://515theultrapodcast.buzzsprout.com
Facebook: @515TheUltraPodcast
Insta : @515theultrapodcast
Youtube : @515TheUltraPodcast
Email : 515Ultraman@gmail.com

Larry

And how he brought Ultraman back to Fention. And a Steve King story.

Brad Sawa conversation

Larry

My guest today has competed in multiple 515 distance races. He started at Ultraman Canada in 2012, which is where we first met. He's from Manitoba originally and has swam across Lake Winnipeg. He is such a smart man in business that he has essentially retired on the Freedom 35 plan. He now focuses many hours on training and racing, completing more kilometers in a day than a lot of athletes do in a week. I'm happy to finally get this man on the podcast from his home in the peach city of Pentikton, my friend and co-race director of Ultraman Canada. This is Mr. Brad Sawa. Hello.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for having me on today.

Larry

Yeah, no, welcome. This is great that we finally get the connection of the two of us for this podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we get to talk all the time, but uh not like this.

Larry

Exactly. Yes, we're gonna share share with everybody the the insides, uh the the background of what goes on at Ultraman Canada. And we'll actually be having our our meeting after this podcast to work on planning for uh the event this year. So we got we got a lot of time to spend together today. Um so we're gonna get into a lot of different topics today, including how uh you became a race director for this race. Uh, but let's start off with where you were before Iron Man and before Ultraman. What what was your life like at that time?

SPEAKER_02

Sure. Um before Iron Man, I was really into uh board sports a lot more. Um ever since I've been you know 12, 13 years old. Um, I got into skateboarding and uh I just loved it. I was very passionate about it. I built a mini ramp in my backyard, a bit of an obsession. Um, so that was huge. Um then when I moved out west um to Calgary, I started doing tons of snowboarding. I have had a couple of hundred day seasons or hundred-day seasons in the mountains. It was actually uh the board sports which got me on the bike. I had an injury one summer. I did some nerve damage in my foot. Uh, I went to the bike shop and uh, you know, in hopes of avoiding physiotherapy, I thought I could be my own physiotherapist. And uh I bought a cyclocross bike. It was a specialized tri-cross. And uh I remember the you know, first day I had that bike, I whipped out on a back road behind my house. Um, it was around 30, 40 kilometers, uh, and it almost killed me. I I think I tipped over on that ride on a bit of a an uphill climb. I just wasn't able to spin the crank and uh you know the bike bike just came to a stop on the uphill. And uh I, you know, I wasn't comfortable enough uh clicking out of my shoes and I tipped right over. I'm sure that a few cars driving by got a good laugh at me. I I've got to say that even though the bike was just supposed to be a tool for um recovering from this injury, uh I quickly started falling in love with the bike itself. I really enjoyed it. This was all happening, um, you know, the the injury was 2008. Uh in 2009, I had already logged a bit of kilometers on the bike, and you know, I was riding it a bit. And uh good friend of mine, Evan, uh, who I grew up with, uh, you know, we went to kindergarten together. He was my next door neighbor since I was two years old, played hockey together. Um, you know, he's uh he's one of my best friends. He had uh been living in Vancouver with another of my good friends, Goody, uh, who completed Ultraman Canada in 2019. Um, and these two guys were uh they're both corporate lawyers, um, and they're you know busy professionals. And at the time they were getting into 70.3s. They had done a few and uh they threw out the idea to me that we should all do Iron Man Canada together. And I was kind of flattered because you know they had both had experience running marathons and like I said, the 70.3s. And I was just a snowboarder, skateboarder guy that um, you know, rode a bike to recover from an injury. Uh the mere fact that they thought uh I could possibly do an Iron Man with them, um, you know, um it piqued my curiosity. So um, you know, in 2009, Evan and myself went down to uh the watch um Calgary 70.3. I enjoyed that enough uh that later on that summer I found myself hopping in a car and driving out to Penticton um to go watch Iron Man Canada. And, you know, when I pulled into town, I made my my way down to the finish line and I got there uh just in time to catch uh the winner uh of the overall event across the finish line. So uh I was able to see everybody cross the finish line in that year. I I stayed and I was in awe, you know, the the pros are are so impressive, you know. Um uh you know, it's almost like they're not human when you look at them. You forget that they hurt too, you know. They they really are just um so inspiring. But it wasn't really seeing all of those fast people finished, you know, sub 10 hours. It wasn't that's not what really got me hooked. It was later in the night as the sun disappears, you know, uh the stars are coming out, it's getting dark, um, and that you start, you see, see a different type of emotion at the finish line, a different type of finisher. And these people, I thought it could have been my my uncle or my auntie, um, you know, somebody I saw at the grocery store that I didn't necessarily wouldn't have looked at and considered an endurance athlete. And and these people were doing it, they were finishing it. And what when they crossed the finish line, what I saw them, the the passion that I saw in their faces, the the the emotion, the tears, the the joy. Um, it was just it was something that I saw and I had to feel that myself. I wanted to put myself through all of those hours to get to that finish line to feel what they felt. And so uh that night I ended up camping at Gyro Park, you know, after after the last finisher came in, you know, just after midnight. I had a tent in my car. And because I did hear that Iron Man Canada, you know, at the time back then, I mean it would just sell out uh pretty much on site. So I had my tent there. I set up in Gyro Park. I was the only tent there, you know, at night. I figured I hope the police don't bug me. Um, and I set my tent up, I went to bed and I woke up in the morning quite early, and uh the whole park was filled with tents. There was tons of tents everywhere. I was they were like a couple feet away from my tent. Um, they were so I can't believe I didn't hear that it all. And uh I was just making my way to my car, which was maybe half a block away, to go grab my toothbrush and stuff to clean up. And uh a volunteer had come out of the main tent and um she said very quietly, I I mean I could hardly hear her, but she she whispered, we're starting registration early. So I just jumped at it and uh I followed her into the tent. I signed up right away. I must have been one of the first that year to to get my name in the hat. Uh I walked out of the tent just, I mean, with with a complete mixed bag of uh emotions from fear, uh excitement, joy, uh just just everything. It was just it was a great feeling. And uh I sent my two best friends, Ryan and Evan, both uh messages saying, I'm in, you guys better get in. Uh and they both uh luckily did get in um through the uh online spots. And you know, that that summer, uh, you know, I I really got into it. I really did the training. Uh I didn't want to just do this with my two friends. I really wanted to crush them. I wanted to beat them. And uh and and then it was all hugs at the finish line, of course, but I wanted to destroy them. And it didn't turn out that way. Um, you know, friend Evan, me and him finished together, and it's it's a memory I'll I'll cherish forever. And uh, you know, a couple years later, um, with a bit more training under my belt, um, I was able to cross the finish line in Coeur d'Alene at 2014 with Ryan with Goody. That that was uh a special one as well. I've got a big blown-up picture of that finish um in my office, and that it means the world to me. I uh when I look at that and I see our arms around each other at a finish line, and it's just a special thing.

Larry

So you you start at your Ohana in the Iron Man race.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Larry

So uh at the beginning of that story, you were talking about how you spent a lot of time skateboarding and snowboarding. And for the people that are watching, they can see that you have quite the skateboard collection. I I know you're you enjoy your art and especially mixing the two together, your skateboard and your art. For for those that will appreciate that, um, what what are some of the things in your collection that really stand out? What are some of the pieces you have?

SPEAKER_02

Back when I really did a lot of skateboarding and got into it in my uh, you know, when I was 12, 13, 14, I mean, I always remembered that feeling I got going into skate shops and just all the colors, all of the cool skulls and art and it it really had an impact on me. I mean, I I just I loved all of it, just the culture of it all. Uh, I started buying the older skateboards from the 80s uh in the late 90s because they were cheap. They were firewood at the time. There nobody had interest in these things. So people were selling off skids of these. And I was just going online and I'd buy, I had hundreds and hundreds of skateboards, um, which at the time had no value. I acquired original art from guys that had done the uh art for the skateboards, and I had their ink drawings, you know, uh iconic skateboard graphics that I have the original art for. Um over the years I've sold a lot of them off, but I still have over a hundred decks, uh, the ones that mean the most to me. Um and I mean, I don't think I would ever sell them. I I would love to keep this collection to get together and pass it down to my kids someday. So um some of my highlights, I think, are uh the Bones Brigade. I do have a complete set of all, you know, in unused condition, the Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, uh Rodney Mullen, Kevin Harris, Canadian from Vancouver. Um, I do have them all and they're mint condition. And they're they're tough enough to collect, um, but I've collected mine all in the exact same color. I I was that's that OCD about the whole thing that I had to get them all matching, uh, which really, I mean, it took me over well over a decade to put that set together. Um, so yeah, that that's uh that's something I have a lot of fun with. It uh it eats a lot of my time up.

Larry

And have you got into the non-fungible tokens yet then? I'm guessing with the art, that's going to be the next thing for you to collect.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, um, a lot of my friends that uh my artist friends um have you know given me options and uh uh to to purchase, you know, uh, you know, there for the first release and whatever it was. And uh I haven't yet. I haven't bought any. Uh for all of my investments, you know, whether it's uh, you know, for business or you know, for for fun, I really like tangible stuff. That's why I do a lot with real estate. And uh, you know, I can't touch an NFT and I can't hang it on my wall. So that's and I don't, I'm not really a tech guy. So I have a tough time fully understanding that. Like I, you know, I I get it, you know, I could explain it to a 10-year-old, but I don't, I don't really get it, you know. Like uh I don't know how it's gonna make me money in 10 years if I have this, you know. I mean, so uh no NFTs yet, and possibly never.

Larry

When you are saying that you're looking at the art and the artistry of all of this, and that's what attracts you to it, that you you take that to your own personal level as well, because you you're pretty tatted up. You you've got uh you you've got a good collection going there. What is that from the same inspiration? Is that is that the skateboarding days? Is that like what are some of the pieces you have that that tell a story?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. They the uh I mean my back um is covered in tattoos, my my entire back, which surprises a lot of people. Um and I don't really know what that means when when they see me with, you know, they know me for years and then they see me with a shirt off, and then like, oh, I never would have guessed you would have that. I've never known how to take that. I mean, um I don't know. I I don't know, I just don't know how to take that. I don't like I don't take it as a compliment or an insult. It's just kind of um, yeah, I don't know. Um, but all of my tattoos in my back are images from Bowen's Brigade skateboards. And um, you know, I never really put too much thought into the fact that I was covering my bodies in tattoos. You know, I was I was in my 20s, and my uh good friend of mine was a really talented um tattoo artist in Calgary. And um, I just had this vision of I really liked the Powell Ripper, like that famous Powell skull with the big head, and he's kind of looks like he's ripping out. And uh so I've always thought my first tattoo I got was really tiny. It was like the size of you know a two-inch diameter. And and I hated it. I hated this tattoo because it just you can't get detail in a small tattoo. And people would come up and they'd be like, oh, what is that? And I'd have to explain it, and you'd have to go close to it to look at it. And after a couple of years, all the lines get fuzzy and it just kind of looks like shit. So I decided after my first little tattoo that you can't get small tattoos, that you need big tattoos. That and and so um I went with that. Um, I've always kind of been an all-in kind of guy, and I figured, you know, at the time I was wearing uh a suit to work, um, so I didn't want to have anything visible. I wanted stuff that I could uh throw a suit on and uh nobody would know it was there. Uh so I in the back is a nice big piece of flesh to work with. Um so yeah, I smothered that and uh uh I love it. It's uh uh I've never had a regret.

Larry

With with the Iron Man crowd, it seems like everyone that gets a little bit serious about it has the has the Iron Man tattoo. Are are you are you corporate enough to have the Iron Man tattoo?

SPEAKER_02

I uh I have an iron, I have an M dot. I uh I got an M dot. I told you I did my first Iron Man with Evan and Ryan.

Larry

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, my friend, they're both lawyers, they're both corporate lawyers. Both of my best friends that I went to kindergarten with became corporate lawyers. He's never had a mustache, he's never had a beard, he's never had a tattoo. He's uh, you know, he's he he's quite conservative. And um what after we did the Iron Man together a few weeks later, Evan called me up and said, Hey, I'm I'm thinking maybe of getting an Iron Man tattoo, but I'll only do it if you do. So uh I had no interest uh in getting an M Dot tattoo. In fact, I I actually I hate it. The only reason I have it is because of Evan and because I love Evan so much. Uh that tattoo is quite special to me. But uh yeah, there are times when I'm at the pool or I'm at an expo and I have it, and I'm like, oh man, I wish I didn't. Um you know, not not not not for any reason other than it doesn't, I'm quite fussy and it doesn't fit in with any of the other tattoos I have. Like, you know, I don't yeah, it just it doesn't blend well. Uh so from that point of view, it it doesn't make sense, but um, I'm glad I have it.

unknown

Yeah.

Larry

Well, it it it it has a lot of meaning. So uh it has a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_02

I'm very sentimental.

Larry

Yeah, with that, let's maybe let's talk a little bit about your your personal life then for a bit so the the listeners can get to know a little bit more about what goes on in Brad's house when he's not planning uh an Ultraman race or training for for one. Tell us a little bit about your your family.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I've got I've got two boys, age eight and eleven. Uh there's Bjorn and Bergie, although Bjorn only goes by yo-yo. We do a lot of adventure in our family. That's um that's a huge priority to us. You know, they they they summited their first big mountain, they summited hauling peak uh in Canmore a few weeks ago. Uh I only took them out there just to see if they could get above the tree line. And once they got above the tree line, they were able to see the summit. And I couldn't stop them. They were uh nice, they had a lot of energy, and um uh they do they do a lot of uh paddling, kayaking. Um uh of course I've got them both in the swim bike run. Um, they love it. They also do a lot of art, you know, they're both extremely creative. Um, these are things that's very important to us. Uh I I do spend a tremendous amount of time with my kids. If if there's any reason why I have backed off work and I don't work more and I'm not more aggressively pursuing business, uh is because these years are so important and um I just I want to capture as much as I can.

Larry

Um, you're definitely one of the strongest family men that I know.

SPEAKER_02

Well, well, that's probably the best compliment I could receive. Thank you, Larry.

Larry

Yeah, yeah. Um now now tell us also about your wife. You didn't know.

SPEAKER_02

My wife, Sigrid, she's amazing. Um Sigrid's me and Sigrid have been together a lot of years. We've we've grown up together. Sigurd's been with me since I was 20 years old. And in that last 25 years, I've been several different brads. I've been uh skateboarder, snowboarder brad, getting out to the mountains a hundred days a year and you know, um snowshoeing up mountains and snowboarding down, taking avalanche safety courses, doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Um that brad also partied a lot. Uh, you know, he he um he could you know go out at 10 p.m. and come home at 10 a.m. uh two days later. Uh um and that brad, um yeah, he didn't have the healthiest of habits, you know. Um it was a lot of indulgence, uh let's say. Um and she, although that wasn't her um forte at the time, uh she was stuck with me through it all. And uh, you know, then when I got really uh, you know, uh started taking work really serious and really focused on that. And I was just, I was pretty much living at work. Uh, you know, um, she she was with me all through that. You know, I can't say that that period was great for us. You know, it wasn't, we were living together, we were a couple. Uh, that was that was not the easiest period um to be with somebody that's just consumed with work. Um, those years were an eye-opener to me because I I knew I loved Sigrid and I knew that she was an amazing person. I knew that if I wanted to spend my life with her, I couldn't be the way I was. I knew that that wasn't gonna work long term. And I also knew that if I was gonna be with her, that we, you know, we both wanted a family. And I knew that 70, 80 hours a week wasn't gonna, it's not, it just wasn't gonna work.

Larry

Yeah. It it sounds like you you kind of go from one, if I can use the word, addiction to another uh throughout your life, where when you were younger, you had your your party time and you had your skateboarding and your snowboarding, and that was your focus. And then it was work, work, work, work. And now you've kind of gone on to I I would say a more balanced lifestyle where it's mainly focused on your family, and then you have like this job on the side where you do all your training. Like you you you still have a ton of maybe even I'll use the word again, addiction to the the training part, because I know that's part of your everyday lifestyle. Um do you think that's fair to say that you're kind of just moving those steps along?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, for sure. Um I I've been an obsessive personality my whole life, um, always. Um this current place I'm at right now in my life, I've I've I've managed to harness um my obsessive personality in in the most positive way that I can, so that um so that I can have a wife and kids and um you know be a normal uh uh functional human being um and not just totally obsessive. Um so the sport really brings me balance and helps me stay grounded and um yeah, it it it means the world to me. In fact, swim, bike, and run is just lifestyle to me now. I don't, even if I never ever did another Iron Man or another ultra event of any sort. I mean, this is for as long as my body will allow me to, I just need this time. I need it as much for my mental health um as for any sort of physical uh benefits. Um it's it's it's it's something I need. So yeah, it's fair to say that it's an addiction, but although a lot more healthy than uh going to the bar and doing shooters.

Larry

Yeah. Um so yeah, and that's what I was trying to get at is that you've actually m taken that addictive personality and put it in such a positive way when you when you put it with your family and and you put it with this um positive physical lifestyle that you've done. And yeah, you really brought some really great balance to your life in that way. That's something that I'd really admire about how how you live your life.

SPEAKER_02

Well, thank you. It's um it's something that that I always am working on.

Larry

You you were saying that that it's part of your lifestyle and that you do that every day, whether you race or not. Um, and that it helps you with your your mental health as well. What is it that gets you to do the kind of mileage that you're doing now, though? You you say you're kind of driven to do it, but is that come back again to that obsessive personality where you you pick a number and you're like, I gotta reach that number? Tell us tell us about some of the numbers you did last year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, numbers are very important to me. Um not in the sense that a lot of athletes might have. Like I don't I don't have a power meter on my bike. I I don't, you know, uh I don't care about the analytics as much as I do about um um, I mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head um because it is very random where I get my numbers from. Uh I and I don't always know how I become so stuck on numbers. Um coming into 2021, uh, I'm sure you know that I did that big run the first week of January. There was a Badwater, um they had a virtual race. Um, and it was whoever could run the Badwater distances of their three events, uh, which is 267 miles. And the challenge was whoever um could run that with the fastest splits in the month of January. So I knew I signed up for that before they announced the the structure, like what the rules were. And um originally when I signed up, I sort of thought it would just be a first out wins, which would have been perfect for me. Uh because that's you know, that would have been a fun goal for me. And when they changed it to 267 miles, who could do it the fastest over 31 days? I mean, you could just run a mile, take a 10-minute break, run another mile. Um, you know, I think I could have, I mean, I I think I could have made a good shot at have um putting forth a good time. I was really fit at the time. It just seemed so boring to me that game. Like I didn't want to play that game. So I ended up um just hammering out 267 miles. I was the only person in the event to do it in less than a week. Um and that sort of set me up for a really big running month in January. I ended up with, I don't know, 650 kilometers of running. Um and I also managed a thousand kilometers on the bike, which I've I've sort of said a thousand kilometers on the bike is a bare minimum. No month should ever pass where I don't have a thousand kilometers on a bike. And that that could be a combination of indoor outdoor. Um so now I've had a thousand kilometers on the bike and a minimum of 400 kilometers a month running since December. And I can't stop with it. You know, like if it's the 29th of a 30-day month and I have 350 kilometers, I have to run 50 kilometers that day to get 400 because it's a number in my head. Nobody else in this world cares. You know, I mean, um, but but I have a lot of fun with it. I love that, you know. I mean, so right now in my life, it's Sunday today, and I wear a Garmin. And so uh Garmin accumulates intensity minutes. Intensity minutes start being accumulated when your heart rate is elevated above 100 beats per minute, and it has to be elevated for a minimum of 10 minutes. So once you've had your heart rate above 100 beats a minute for 10 minutes, it will start accumulating intensity minutes. I've given myself the rule that I have to have 2,000 intensity minutes per week for every week of this year. And I'm still on track. This week was really challenging because I did some traveling and I had a lot of work to do, and my training got really screwed up. So yesterday was Saturday, and I was at 800 intensity minutes. I needed 1,200 intensity minutes in a weekend. So that's 600 a day, right? Like, I mean, that's huge days. So I got 600 yesterday, um, beat the out of myself. And once I get off, uh finish this with you, Larry. It's gonna be throw the bike shorts on and I'm gonna ride my bike for you know, pretty much all day on the trainer. Um, because I need to get 600 more damn intensity minutes today. Um, once again, nobody in the world cares about this. You know, it's just it's purely something, you know, even if I had 1800, it's when I show up for Iron Man Canada in September, those extra 200 intensity minutes aren't gonna help me. You know, in fact, they might hurt me. I uh I'm I realize that, but uh, but it's fun. This is fun to me. You know, this is the game, and uh and I love doing it. So yeah, that's uh that that that's my way. I mean, I guess I'm a bit weird with that stuff.

Larry

Yeah, that's awesome. Um, let's let's talk about some of the the events that you've been in and and some of the things that you've participated in. Um I know that you've done uh all the major marathons in the US, Boston, New York, Chicago. Um is there is there one of those that is your is your favorite? Which one would you enjoy the most? Or do they just marathon in a different city?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they're all so amazing. You know, I mean a lot of people sort of um a lot of middle pack slower runners, um, you can hear them complain about Boston, you know, like it's it's not fair, um, a lot of these things. I would say that although Boston has the prestige of being the Boston and the qual, you know, uh that prestige because it's a qualify-only event, uh, New York and Chicago are just as good. To any person that might not be fast enough to qualify for a Boston spot, if if you're just looking for the same type of experience, go and do Chicago or New York because they're all just they're so amazing. All three of those marathons are truly um, you know, to run through all five boroughs of New York City and they shut it down, you know, and you're it's there's no experience like that. You know, it's uh it's the best way to see New York City, to see Chicago. You know, Chicago of the three marathons um by far had the most fans. Like there was over a million people cheering for me that day as I ran through the streets of Chicago. Some neighborhoods, it felt like I was running through an auditorium.

Larry

I mean, you're all yelling, Brad. That's a weird thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, that's right. No, it's funny because um I ran Chicago uh with Goody Ryan, my best friend, and we made um running uh kits that matched our old hockey jerseys from when we played back in the day. So they were kind of like the old Minnesota Vikings, the green and yellow. Remember those from way back in the day? And so we ran the first half of the marathon together, and then Goody kicked my butt and started taking off. And so he was a few minutes ahead of me throughout most of that marathon. So as I was running, the crowds kept yelling at me, you're catching him, you're catching him, he's just around the corner. So I always knew where Goody was.

Larry

That's a good one. Um, and and that gets me to to the next thing. So all these experiences that you have and the way you learn to race through running marathons and ultras, doing ultra swims, doing the uh Iron Man's, you've done a a double anvil as well. Do they prepare you enough to do the Ultraman experience? How how how does Ultraman change how you attack a race? Because we met in 2012 at Ultraman Canada. Uh maybe maybe you can tell us a little bit about that race for you and and how it came to be that we got together on that race.

SPEAKER_02

Sure. So yeah, 2012, I had uh, like I said earlier, I did my first Iron Man in 2010. And then uh 2000, and then after that race, I went to the bench, uh, which Iron Man Canada is gonna run past up the steep Vancouver Hill this summer. Uh I was having breakfast at the bench. It's my favorite place to go post any race and pick out on they've got great salmon bennies. Um the guy in front of me had a t-shirt on. I had just finished my first Iron Man, and I thought I was like the coolest shit ever. And this guy in front of me, this old guy, gray hair, he had a t-shirt on. Ultraman Canada, swim 10K, bike 421, run 84. And I'm looking at this guy's shirt and I'm thinking, what a jerk. Who does this guy think he is? Like poser. Yeah, well, well, why don't you just swim a thousand and bike a million and and run half a million? I don't know. Like just pick numbers, you know? Um, but of course, now I went home and Googled it and yeah, sent the application in. And honestly, I didn't really think I was gonna get accepted, right? So I don't know, a month later when I got this invite email, I was as soon as I saw that, I'm like, I have to do this. I had asked my sister to uh to crew for me. And her and her boyfriend, my sister was young, she was maybe 20, 21 years old. Um and I really didn't know what crewing meant at the this point in time. I really thought it was an unnecessary evil of Ultraman. It kind of annoyed me that I had to bring this vehicle around the course with me. I just thought, like, do you want I trained so much and I'm I'm fine. Like, I'm sure Sigrid could just drive out there and pass me a bottle every hundred kilometers and and it'll be good, right? Um and thankfully um it didn't work out for my my sister and her boyfriend to show up. Uh a few weeks out, they canceled on me. And I thought my race was over. Without a crew, they won't let you race. So I contacted the uh the race director at that time uh who was involved with Ultraman, and he was able to pair me up with Lucy and Larry Ryan, um, who at the time were married. And uh Lucy had done Ultraman, I believe, 2011. 2010, something. Yeah. And and you had crewed for her. So you had some experience crewing. And I believe both of you were just coming back from California, where Lucy had just finished running Badwater for the first time successfully. Um and so I met Lucy and Larry, I think probably on the Tuesday or the Wednesday before my my Ultraman, they volunteered to crew for me. And um, we had rented a house in Penticton. We all stayed together, and I would say we we all hit it off right from the get-go. It wasn't uh it wasn't tough. After going through that weekend with Lucy and Larry, uh, it was really a good thing that my sister and her boyfriend weren't able to make it and that I did have them as a crew. Um they did their knowledge. I mean, I didn't know that I had to send somebody at five.

Larry

You have to talk about me in the in the third person. I'm right here with it.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you were awesome. You know, I mean, uh like little things like um, you know, there's nothing really in between Princeton uh and Summerland. So Larry, like Larry knew to go get ice, he knew to go get gas in the morning, like all of these things that for me as an athlete, I there's no way I would have been able to give direction to a crew that didn't know. So um I was really lucky being an inexperienced athlete, having an inexperienced uh having a very experienced crew, um, because it would have been a much different race for me. My race was flawless. I had no problems. Uh my first day was very smooth. Larry was out in the kayak with me. Um, I got sick. Larry was calm, he was patient. Um, there was no problems. Uh on day two, I mean, it was really fun. I had a ton of fun on day two. On day three, I really struggled. Um, I ran a very fast first marathon. Um, I felt great. Uh, it was almost too easy, I would say, uh, the first half of day three. And Lucy and Larry kept gently warning me in the first half, like, hey, you're going pretty hard. Uh, you know, you you might not you might want to slow down. And um, they definitely were better at providing nutrition for me than I was for myself, because I just I wasn't thinking of any of that. I wasn't thinking how long the day was. I was just thinking, oh, I'm 15 kilometers in, I feel great. And every time Lucy would run up to me and give me grapes or a bottle, and I'd say, no, no, I'm good. Eat three grapes, take two swigs of the bottle. Like she would just force and uh force something on me. So so it was really a lot of fun. Um, that got me sucked in. What was supposed to be a one and done really, really did uh become important to me. Uh, you know, that whole we meet as strangers, we compete as friends, we leave as family. After that weekend, I I got it. You know, I went from being full of bravado and ego and um really just looking at the sport as more of an individual, you know, like like what can I do? What's in this for me? And and now I was just looking at this like, what a cool community, you know, like I this was so fun, like that was so awesome. Like I had so much fun with the crew. Like that was really that was like being part of a team out there, like growing up playing team sports, playing hockey, that felt no difference to me, you know. Um, and my wife, who um was supportive of Ultraman, she fell in love with it as well. Um, she was out on course, um, not with the crew vehicle in her own vehicle. And um, she loved it, especially the run, because it's way more spectator friendly. You know, my wife does in an Iron Man, you're competing with 2,000 athletes, family, and friends. So there's tens of thousands of people all over course that you're competing with. At an Ultraman, you're not competing with all of that. And the people that you are um going around the course with, you're not competing with them. They're part of your ohana, they're part of your family. So everybody's out to help each other. If you're on the side of the road at the top of a climb trying to see your athlete on a bike, somebody else is there, they're not getting in your way. They're not, you know, um, it it's way more friendly. And uh, you know, uh, so she she loved it.

Larry

Yeah, yeah. And that's the same thing that happened with me. Obviously, Lucy was the one who was competing in all these events, and I would come along and crew, but I I too like just fell in love with this Ohana as well. And and for 10 years, her and I went back to that race, whether she was racing or not, to make sure that we were crewing and and meeting people like you, and and this is where it's taken us now. I hope you've enjoyed getting to know Brad so far, but we need to take a quick break and bring in another of our friends.

Steve King Stories : Rick Kent

Mary Jo

Now here's another deep role.

Steve King

The gentleman I'm going to introduce next to you is someone I'm sure many of you are very familiar with. He is a five-time race across America finisher, finishing as high as fourth place in 1992. He's also a three-time finisher at the Furnace Creek 508, finishing as high as second place in 1991. He's run around 50 marathons, was also a racewalker up to the 50 kilometer distance. He's done the cross-continental USA cycling in under nine days. He was one of the earliest finishers of an ultra man distance as well, taking part in one in Europe in the early days. But he was up to the Big Island on three occasions as an athlete. In 1998, he was eighth, 1999, 15th. And he was there for that horrendous year in 2000 when uh the swim certainly provided lots of difficulties for the athletes, and many were not able to finish. However, he Gardley stayed in the water and finished in six hours 53 minutes. He came to Ultimate Canada in Penticton in 1999 and finished third overall there to the Australian Nick Mallet and the Brazilian Sergio Cordero. He finished the Parry Breast Parry, the 1200 kilometer bike ride. He's held world record for 24 hours on a road time trial and was the American record holder for 100 kilometers on the track as a time trialist as well. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with MS in 2002, but became a public speaker for the MS Lifeline Ambassadors. Since then, he's become a very renowned sports photographer, having covered well over 250 plus events. He's been in magazine covers, uh, or his photos have at least, and he's been to many races, including many Iron Man races, major city marathons, and to Ultramans, of course, uh, the races in the UK, the race in Canada, and on the Big Island. Now, he also ended up being a race director on two occasions for an Ultraman Distance Race in Texas, where two of our superstars, Andrew Gale and Ingrid Hillhouse, both won on both occasions. He's a great music fan as well, and was in fact the official photographer for Jack Bruce of Cream, the great bass guitarist. And he lives in the music city of Austin, Texas. I'm referring, of course, to the great Mr. Rick Plant.

Larry

Did you know that I do extensive show notes for each episode? I provide links to all of the events and people that are mentioned during the show so that you can learn even more about them. I have to say, it's amazing how many shout-outs Steve can include in one Steve King story. If you want to check them out from any episode, just go to the podcast website, which is linked in the description and also available from our Facebook page. Alright, let's get back to talking to Brad and hear about some more of the people he has met through Ultraman and the adventures that has led to.

SPEAKER_02

I put on a great event that year. It was really cool. Um I really wasn't too familiar with uh I'd been to Miami before, but I I would had never been to Orlando before or uh Cocoa Beach, uh Central Florida. Um, it was a lot of fun. I never did the rode the course in advance. So every turn that I went around was a new road for me, was new scenery. Um I I know that most athletes need to see the course before they do it. Um, but I was really glad I did the course blind that that one time. I mean, it was uh it was a neat way to to see a a really pretty state like Florida.

Larry

And then you I think your next one was probably the 520 event.

SPEAKER_02

Uh 520K Canada, yes.

Larry

Yeah, yeah, when when Ultraman left for that brief time for a few years. Um we were there together again uh at that race because I was crewing there as well um at that one. But before that race, you were involved in another um big event that year. So can you just tell tell us a little bit about this this event? Now, this time you're you're using your Ohana um not as the athlete, you've gone in as the crew now. So you're you're doing you're doing that full circle thing where sometimes you're the athlete, sometimes you're the crew, and and you get involved with this um ultra swim. So tell us about that event, please.

SPEAKER_02

Sure. Well, this actually ties into Florida because I met Adam at Ultraman Florida. Um we we really hit it off on the run. We started running together and we ran the first marathon together, and we just it was just nonstop talk. It was really a great way to uh just you know burn 40 kilometers. So I I had thrown out to him, we were talking about um other adventures. And I said, Oh, I grew up on Lake Winnipeg in Canada. It's uh from from the point where I grew up in Gimli, Manitoba, across the lake is around 30 kilometers. I would love to swim it someday. So not too long after that, Adam called me up and said, So this swim you were talking about, um, let's do it. When are we doing it? And I said, Oh, okay. So we put that all together. And in 2015, I took the year off uh, you know, formal racing, and me and Adam swam 30 kilometers across Lake Winnipeg. For me, it was a real struggle. Um, I really was a burden on Adam through that swim. He would have been finished hours earlier had it not been for me. Um, but he he was great. He uh he was really good supportive of me across the swim. And I can remember when we got to the other side, you know, I mean, after swimming all day, hours and hours, my neck was trashed. I had really bad um chafing. Like, I mean, it was it was extreme. And I was in a lot of pain. I spent most of my day crying and um I really wanted to quit. And uh I couldn't because it was my hometown. And I just really felt that uh I'm, you know, unless I go unconscious, I'm not gonna stop moving my arms and swimming. Um and of course, when I got to shore. My kids ran out into the water and gave me hugs, and my wife and my dad. And I mean, it was really a special thing. I mean, I had like Sunday school teachers and uh that showed up on the beach and people I hadn't seen in 20 years. Um, and that's the cool thing about growing up in a small town. Um, when I finally made my way to Adam at the end of our swim, we gave each other a big hug and uh he just looked so fresh. He like, I mean, that that that 30 kilometer swim across that lake hardly phased that guy. And uh and and he smiled. And in the coolest way, he said to me, I think I could swim back. And he wasn't being cocky and he wasn't being arrogant. He was he was just, I think that he gained his confidence. I think that swim is where an amazing athlete something clicked and he and he gained confidence. And I feel pretty fortunate that I was there at that moment when this guy, like when it when it clicked, you know, and so um we had left a five-day window open uh to swim across Lake Winnipeg. Uh, and because we had um, you know, boats lined up and kayaks and paramedic that came out there with us. And so we had this five-day um window open, and it turned out that we were able to hit the swim on the first day. So after that, we had four more days with nothing planned. And for personalities like me and Adam, throwing four days at us where you can't really do anything because you're kind of sore from the swim, and you're in a small town. And anyway, it was it was really tough for us, those four days. Uh, we were going a bit stir crazy. Um, we spent most of our time sitting around, um, you know, drinking uh tea and eating fruit and talking about future adventures. One of the future adventures was actually an idea that uh Elmar Heag Heger, um, you know, Jen Seust's uh boyfriend, right? Um, he had mentioned to me that he was thinking of swimming Okanagan Lake north to south. And that was an idea. I mean, he mentioned to that map that to me years ago. And so that was sort of something in in my head.

Larry

And can you just for for the people that are listening, what what distance are we talking for north to south?

SPEAKER_02

We are talking well over 100 kilometers of swimming in a massive deep lake, um, where where conditions change quickly. Um so yeah, you're looking at probably around 70 miles. I would say 115, 150.

Larry

I think I think 105 is what uh was that a total?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so uh 65 miles, 105 kilometers. Um and so Adam called me up uh just before Christmas after our 2015 swim. Uh so just approaching 2016. And he said, uh, here's the plan. I think uh this summer I should swim Okanagan Lake and uh you crew for me. And then after that, uh you do Ultra 520 and I'll crew for you. Or Ultra, I don't I can't remember what it was at the time. I think it was Ultra 520. And uh and I was like, yeah, let's do it. And uh, you know, it's funny when I look back at stuff like that, um, how casual we we I like I took that and Adam took it. Like, you know, it's it's a pretty big thing. It's but we did we just didn't consider it. We just it was no different than calling you up and saying, hey Larry, you want to, you know, go play some pool and grab a beer? Yeah, man, let's do it. You know, I mean, it was just so casual. And it might have been like a five or 10 minute conversation, but the plan was laid. And originally it was just going to be very small, and um Adam turned it into something much better and much cooler, though.

Larry

Um he had a real purpose behind doing that as well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh, and uh that was really special. He he did it, um, he raised funds and awareness for Parkinson's um for his auntie Susan. Um, and she was able to make it out. Um, and she was on uh one of the boats throughout the swim. She was able to witness him do it, and she actually got out and swam with him for a few kilometers, which I'm sure is a memory that they'll both cherish forever. It's it was pretty special um to see the whole thing. And I mean, it was it was a really uh the swim took over 40 hours. He didn't stop swimming, he did not get out of the water one time, the whole time. Um, he swam through the night. Um at a certain point, he lost the use of his right arm. He couldn't move his right arm anymore. He created this technique of swimming, which worked, and he was moved, he was he was probably swimming as fast with his left arm as I swim with both. Um, you know, like it became really challenging towards the end. We went around the little bend in the lake around Summerland, and there's an island there. It's called Rattlesnake Island. And we went through the little channel between the island and um the east side of the lake. And at that point is when Adam really, I think, lost the movement of his uh his arm. And so, pretty much from Rattlesnake Island right into Penticton, he was swimming with one arm. At that point in time, I really think Adam was also starting to um hallucinate a little. Like I think his uh like something, you know, obviously, like um when you're exerting yourself that hard and like your body's out of whack. So I think Adam was having a tough time with things. He was starting to see things that weren't there. So it was quite funny because once we became visible, because we had a big entourage, we had a houseboat, um, a pontoon boat, a bunch of kayaks, and everything was well lit because we had to swim through darkness and stuff. And so

Brad does a “Steve King” Story

SPEAKER_02

Steve King, legendary announcer, um he came out and he pulled up his van with a PA system onto the beach by the SS Sycamoose in Penticton. I can't remember exactly what time he got out there, but it was early afternoon. I would probably say two or three in the afternoon. And we could hear Steve out on the lake. I could hear his PA. And um, of course, they could see us, but we weren't moving fast. And of course, Adam was hallucinating and he kept swimming. Like we had two kayaks in front of him, and he had to follow the kayaks, but he he kept fighting the route we were taking him because he decided that he was swimming someplace else in his head with his hallucinations, he was taking different paths than the right path. So um it was really funny because Steve King had my my phone number, and Steve King, you know, for the last four or five hours, as we're slowly approaching uh, you know, Okanagan Beach, kept calling me and he'd say, Hey Brad, how are you guys doing? Um, how's Adam feeling? And you know, I'd give him a little bit of a feedback. And Steve would so so politely just say, give him give me some tips. And he would say, Hey Brad, you know, you just if you could just keep Adam swimming straight, you gotta keep him swimming straight because he keeps veering to the left and and he's going the wrong way. And uh and uh and I'd say, Yeah, Steve, you know, I'm we are trying our hardest, but like it was virtually impossible. So I really appreciated that um Steve was adding uh just an element of fun to what was you know was a little bit stressful at that point. We had all been on the boats for at that point in time. I think I'd been on the boat for you know over 48 hours. Um so just hearing Steve, I I couldn't really get into it at the time with Steve and say, hey, this guy's hallucinating. I think he's in cartoon characters, and I think he thinks that mountain's on fire. And but um Steve was out there until I mean I think we showed up on shore probably close to 10:30, 11 p.m. at night.

Larry

It was definitely dark. I've I've watched some video from it recently.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and Steve was there the whole time. I don't think Steve probably got home till well after midnight.

Larry

Yeah, and uh, you know, for us, after everything we had been through, Steve made that finish because there was hundreds of people there, but they weren't there for any throughout the day, he was just drawing them in because when people hear Steve King announcing something, they're gonna come over and see what he's announcing.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. So this this was spontaneous on Steve King's part. We didn't plan it with him, he just knew that it was happening. And this is when you talk about Ohana, there's just so many cool Ohana stories like this, where a guy like Steve is just coming out on his own to show support to his friends, to it to other athletes, and um that just meant the world to every single one of us out there. Otherwise, without Steve King, we were just showing up to a beach at night and nobody cared.

Larry

In the dark, yeah, yeah. Uh I'll put the the video clips in the in the show notes for this show because there are a couple video clips of him arriving, and you can hear Steve King in the background of these that I've watched recently. Um and you can, yeah, you can tell there's there's some excitement there. There was a documentary made um with the with the swim as well, uh, a documentary film, and I'll I'll put a link out for that as well. It's Victory Swim 105.

SPEAKER_02

That's right.

Larry

Um, yeah, and the it's it's a really good story, and I think people would be excited to to watch and and see what it meant um for Adam to to do that for his aunt and to to raise those funds for for Parkinson and the whole story behind um the idea of how exercise is helping those people that are suffering from that disease as well.

SPEAKER_02

It's a great story.

Larry

Yeah. So so one of the things about the Ohana and and meeting these people that you meet at all these Ultraman races is they do these these other crazy ultra events as well, like like Adam did with these ultra swims. Uh I'm gonna play you a clip of another person that we we met through Ultraman uh that you have a relationship with, and I just want you to listen to this and then uh comment on it.

SPEAKER_01

All right, this is gold from August 4th. 35-year-old Andre Kayleck became the first ever amputee to finish in Ultraman when he completed Ultraman Canada 2014. Burrito event starts with a 10 kilometer swim on day one, followed by 420.2 kilometer bike ride split over days one and two, and concludes with an 84.3 kilometer run on day three. He completed the entire run portion, equivalent to the length of a double marathon. Using his regular wheelchair, he says his racing wheelchair would have given him an unfair advantage. Final time, 28 hours, four minutes, twenty-three seconds. Good enough for eighth place overall. That's good.

Larry

Obviously, that's an amazing athlete that we met through our Ultraman family. That was the the 2014 edition of Ultraman Canada. That was from a sports center in the US. Um, they did that little clip on on Andre. Um, we were both at that event as well. I think you were crewing at that event, were you? Um for someone.

SPEAKER_02

Was that the year I ran with Rick?

Larry

Oh, that might be, yeah. The year you ran with Rick in your underwear. You were just working as a volunteer at the event. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, and and and we met Andre. So now you've had a tell first of all, tell tell the listener about Andre at Ultraman, and then we can go into how that extended out in your in your family for with him.

SPEAKER_02

He was just very impressive. I mean, he was the way he approached the course. I mean, just in in that little bit that you uh played, um when he mentioned that Andre didn't use his racing wheelchair, um, that would have been an unfair advantage. So, which is only something that Andre determined. Nobody else there determined that that was an unfair advantage. Most people there would have thought that whatever Andre did that day with was not an unfair advantage.

Larry

Just to just for the people that um know the course or maybe don't even know the course yet, that is not an easy run course with all the gravel and the the as much of it as it is, uh, the steepness of it, obviously, at points like he for him to say that it would give him an unfair advantage, is it says a lot about who he is as an athlete as well.

SPEAKER_02

There's no flat sections on that course, you know. There there was that um that cool moment um where Nick Mallet, I think, was slightly ahead of Andre going up a climb. And he was just, I think Nick was really giving it on the bike, and he he was and he knew Andre was behind him. And that was the point where I think Nick knew he was getting past. And I think he was so impressed with Andre at that point in time that Nick just stopped his bike, waited at the summit of the climb. And I I can't remember if he cheered for Andre as he passed, or if he stopped and shook his hand and said, like, this is amazing. Like, um, yeah, it wasn't. I mean, Andre's a tremendous swimmer, he's a tremendous, you know, um cyclist, and you know, uh he does all three disciplines very well in in sport. Uh but it wasn't that, it wasn't how fast he was, or you know, it was his it was his personality, it was um his nature, the way um that he was that that made everybody there fall in love with him.

Larry

Yeah, he's he's he's an amazing athlete. Um, and and I don't think anybody that went to that race didn't get drawn to him for his personality, like you said. Um like everybody thought, oh, it's amazing a para athlete's gonna do Ultraman, and and that is amazing. Um, but he's such an amazing athlete that it it doesn't matter that he's a para athlete. He he killed that course, um, you know, and and his his personality, like you said, drew everybody in because he's so friendly and so nice. Um obviously that had an effect on you because later on you've had another experience with him. So tell tell us about how you hooked up with him again later on and did another crazy ultra event.

SPEAKER_02

Um yeah, we we did hit it off at that Ultraman and we kept in touch and became friends after. And uh when I did race, you mentioned that double um anvil in Oregon. Um, you know, I I did go out and see uh see him then. And yeah, uh Andre what had been talking about Ram for quite a while, and uh I was down crewing for a different athlete in Barrago Springs, California, when Andre was there trying to qualify for Ram. Uh so that was the 12 and 24 hour um uh time travel championships. Uh and I Andre had mechanical issues, and due to the mechanical issues, he didn't make the distance, which I believe was 400 kilometer minimum or something for the Ram qualification that year. I've got to say that one of the most impressive things about Andre that that I take away is uh just his sheer determination. You know, the the amount of effort and work and training that goes into him just to try to qualify to get into Ram is astronomical.

Brad Crew Story : Andre Kajlich at RAAM

Larry

For for people that don't maybe know all the ins and outs of Ram, um, can you just tell us a little bit how it worked as a crew? What's going on behind the scenes for RAM?

SPEAKER_02

So every athlete is going to approach it a bit different, but pretty much you're crossing America from Oceanside, California at the Pacific, um, to Annapolis, Maryland, um, at the Atlantic. It's over 3,000 miles, or which is over 5,000 kilometers. Um, and there's checkpoints along the way. So obviously, you have to take that specific path. And there's a lot of rules involved, but um you're really on your own, you know, uh a lot of that that way. So um we had a sprinter van uh which was with Andre 24-7. There would never be a time when that sprinter van wasn't with Andre. And then we had um a big RV uh that was always a couple hundred kilometers away from us, never directly with us. And um, and then we had another crew um with a minivan. So my shift was 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. uh when I was with Andre. So day shift, that was really it was fun because you got to see America. Or we left uh Oceanside California with Andre. We drove for 12 hours that first day, so till 7 p.m. At 7 p.m., they have um uh you you must follow your athlete from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. It's mandatory for the race. If the event sees an athlete on course past 7 p.m. without a support vehicle following them, that's disqualification.

Larry

So we would always meet Which by the way, we should point out is the exact opposite of an Ultraman race. You are not allowed to follow your athlete.

SPEAKER_02

Right. But we also don't race through the night.

Larry

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um so uh so yeah, we would make that switch. We would usually call, like we would call each other. And we also had um the there's live tracking on the race. So you could go to the live tracker, see where Andre is for the 7 p.m. people. They would then you know position themselves to be at the right spot so they know when we're gonna show up. So we would always make those tag offs, and they were quite challenging because when it's like 6:45 p.m., they show up, we pull over to the side of the road, Andre keeps going. We have to pull all of our day coolers out, all of the drinks, all of the food, all of the dirty laundry. We have to like shove it all out super quick. So, like our day team is doing all of that while the night team is loading everything up. And then you've got the captain from day and night talking about Andre and going over notes and how everything's going, talking about his nutrition. Um, it it really was um a very high-energy thing, you know, like it was um everybody had to be firing on all cylinders in order for this to happen properly. Nobody could be delegating, or you just had to know what had to be done and do it. And uh, and it really was um seamless. So at that point in time, it's now 7 p.m. and we're done for the day. So our option was what do you do now? Do you just go to the closest hotel and sleep there for the night, knowing that over the night, Andre's gonna move 200 kilometers, possibly more. Our choice was always to drive that night, to put those few hundred kilometers in that night. So typically, uh, you know, from 7 p.m. till 9, 10 p.m., we would be driving far enough up the Ram route so that when we woke up in the morning, we'd be within kilometers of Andre, hopefully, if all went well. And that's how it usually played out. So yeah, I mean, we'd usually uh get up at 7, you know, and make our, you know, have a little breakfast and make our way back out on the road so that we could, you know, tag off with that night crew sometime around 6:30, 645, uh, and once again swap out all the coolers and all the dirty laundry and load it all up and spend the day with Andre again. On the very last day, we ended up going with Andre longer. So we ended up going from our 7 a.m. crew uh all the way until Andre got to Annapolis. Um we really were in a good spot that last day uh as the day was going on, and it was really challenging getting through West Virginia. I had no idea how much mountains there are in that state. Um and and so Andre, like that last day, just mentally for Andre was really challenging. And he asked us if we would ride him into Annapolis. So I think we went from 7 a.m. to nine 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on that last day. And it was funny. I did get to spend the night with Andre. I do remember sometime in the middle of the night, he was uh having a nature break on the side of the road, and I was standing near him, and he asked me if I could see um his name in his pee on the concrete on the road. He's like, Look, look, it's spelled my name out. And I'm I'm looking at this pea puddle on the side of the road, and I don't see his name written in it. And I'm thinking, like, okay, sure, Andre, that's pretty cool, you know.

Larry

Um, so let's take that to the next the next step then. And obviously, we've had those experiences, and that's how we've come to now be the co-race directors of Ultraman Canada. Um, I came in a little bit later because you were instigating the reintroduction of Ultraman to Pentikton. Can can you tell the listener? Because I think people know by now that there are two races that happen in Pentikton that are 515 distance, um, two weekends apart. And can you just tell a little bit of the background as to how you came to be the race director of Ultraman Canada and what happened that there are now these two races, just for clarification.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, of course. Um, so uh I mentioned that I did um uh Ultra 520K in 2016. That was the year that Adam did his Okanagan Lake swim. That January, um, so that that would be January of 2017, Ultra 520K um put out an announcement on their social media in January of 2017. And that announcement was that they would cease to exist after their 2018 event. So they would still host the summer of 2017 and the 2018 event. And even uh that that was really upsetting to me. Um I I knew that uh the organizers of the Ultra 520 event had made the choice uh to not um be part of the Ultraman brand anymore. Um so they weren't part of that franchise. Um, but I was still very happy that the ultra distance race existed um in Canada and in the area. And so there was no need to look for a replacement as long as an ultra race. Race existed and it was a good event. But once they announced that it was ending, then I just thought that's really tragic. That's really sad. That's for us athletes and for the region. Pentictin is such uh triathlon-rich uh area. It does the history here, you know, it's just it's amazing. And it's just so perfect for racing in the summer. And um and as an area to bring international athletes where there's nothing but recreational activities, mountains, lakes, wineries, vineyards, like there's no end um to what you could do if you want to bring your family here, race for a week and then spend a week um exploring. You know, it really is an amazing place.

Larry

So that's so amazing that you actually moved your family to Pentecond from Calgary.

SPEAKER_02

I do, I do, I love it here. And um uh this is my happy place in the world for sure. And uh so that morning uh over breakfast, I was um talking to Sigurd, my wife, about it. And I said, Sigurd, what could we do? Is there anything we can do like to to try and keep a race going? So we were having the conversation where, yeah, like let's, you know, what do we do? Do we do we start a new race and do we call it Ultra Canada? Or or do we call or or you know, and so we we didn't really know. I mean, let's not being uh race directors and owning a race, it wasn't an ambition of ours. Like we we were really um, you know, just a young couple um looking at starting a family. Uh we already had, I had my fingers in a couple different businesses at the time. Um, I was trying to, I was I was looking for more free time, not more, not, you know, I wasn't looking to take more on, I was looking to take less on, was sort of what the position I was in at that time. So yeah, my phone rang uh while I was uh talking to Sigurd about uh, you know, let's keep this race going. And it was Michael Brown, who uh I raced with at Ultraman Canada in 2012. Uh Michael Brown is a former professional rugby player. He played in uh the UK. And so he's got a background of being an athlete. I think when his professional um career ended, I think he put some events on in Canada for rugby. Um I don't know a lot about that sport, but I do know that um that's I think where Michael's um event um promotions started. And after that, he bought the Great White North 70.3, which is the oldest uh half-iron distance race in Canada. Uh and he did a tremendous job with that race. Um I knew that he had the contract to put on the ITU um World Championships in 2018. Um, you know, he had his fingers in a lot of things. He had the contract for Challenge Pentikton, uh, I think for three out of the five years that it operated um in Penticton. And so Michael was already set up with a lot of the uh the equipment, the logistics, the connections to make this happen. Um and so he called me up. I was actually a little bit surprised um because I didn't know maybe what he needed Brad for. Um, but um maybe it's just part of the Ohana. I I do think that um Michael saw the same email that I saw that um ultra racing was gonna be coming to an end in Pentikton. And I think that um he just really felt the same way I did that um we need to keep this going. So we spoke for a few minutes that morning and we basically came to the conclusion that we were gonna keep um this race going. Now, Michael had just been through uh the uh the community of Pentikton made the decision in 2015, after the 25th year anniversary, to not continue the contract with Iron Man. They made the decision to try out a different brand and they tried challenge. The first two years, it was run by, I believe, the city. And then the city put up the the race to tender, and I and I could be wrong with some of my details, but and then I believe Michael Brown got that final three years. So I was dealing with Michael as he had been dealing with trying to rebrand a race, and he was very frustrated. He was very frustrated at um how North America wasn't interested in a new brand. He was really just under the impression that people want Iron Man. That's what they want. Like he's like, challenge is a great race. Like, I mean, it's this I could give them the exact same course, but people want Iron Man. Like, so M dot exactly. So she he sort of felt that I think he felt a little bit defeated in that regard. So when I was saying we need to keep this race going, he just said, look, I he's like, Ultraman is the way to go. We're not we're not approaching this for any reason other than to give people what they want. And we we really felt that people want Ultraman. Um that was the message we were getting. Um, and you know, uh, I've had a great relationship with um Jane and Cheryl and Dave. And uh, you know, I would I I thought it'd be tons of fun to work with them all and also to have that support um from for and um credibility to be uh aligned with uh an uh organization like that. So we had discussed how to how do we announce this? Like we we wanted to show respect um to the current event, um Ultra 520K Canada, and really let um that event play out um without any interference from what we're doing. So we came to the decision that Michael Brown was hosting the ITU Worlds in Pentikton just a few weeks after the final Ultra 520K in 2018. We thought that the worlds would be a tremendous venue for us to announce our event that Ultraman Canada would continue in 2019 and beyond. It was coming back to Pentikton. Unfortunately, at the final Ultra 520K Canada, uh last weekend of July in 2018, I I guess they made the decision to uh keep the event going. Uh, I think it was uh possibly due to the demand. They um sold out the last year of the race, um which doesn't surprise me. Uh I think I think many people were looking at uh this is my last chance to kick the can and I want to get out there and kick it. I think I think it would be common um maybe to have a spike, in my opinion. Um, if you announce a last year, final year of um an event that's been happening for nearly 30 years. Um I think that any athletes that had contemplated it or you're gonna bring them out of the woodwork. And um, my suspicion is that's maybe what happened in 2018.

Larry

And and so 2019 rolls around, you're a month out from doing the event. And Larry Ryan is out on an epic road trip, driving up to Tuck to Yuctuck and from Vancouver, and then on the way home, I just call up Brad because it's like, oh, we're gonna be passing through Penticton. Thought I'd drop in, see what's going on. And by the way, look up Tuck to Yuctuck and see just how far that is from Vancouver. It was a great trip. Um, but uh so I call you up and we come over and we're hanging out, and you're like, Yeah, the race is going in in a month, and uh we got a lot of work to do still. What what happened at that point in the new story?

SPEAKER_02

So I'm I'll give a little bit of details, and I'm gonna be a little bit vague on a few things just out of respect for uh for my partner at the time, because I don't know all the details, so I don't want to say too much. But um Michael Brown was my partner at the time going into 2019 event. And um Michael, like I said, he put on other events in Pentikton, and one of them was the challenge event. And I do know that there was some hard feelings um between um the bureaucracy of the city of Pentikton and Michael Brown's business with challenge, and there was conflict, and you know, I think that litigation was being discussed, and there were there was a whole can of worms that I had nothing to do with, um, but it created hard feelings for for my partner and Pentikton. So unfortunately, um that really took a lot of the wind out of the sails for my partner coming to the, you know, um and being part of this event. So um he was really a lot of the brains of all of this. You know, I was sort of um, I don't know, I was kind of a cheerleader up until that point, you know, uh I was doing a lot of social media stuff like, you know, just hey, come out and do this race, you know. Um, and he was, you know, pulling permits and um organizing, you know, um, to make sure that we had a finish line and uh generators and uh medals and finisher shirts, you know, that that was kind of the roles. And and so he still offered support. Um, but I all of a sudden I ended up more in the driver's seat as opposed to the passenger seat. And I wasn't um I wasn't prepared for that. I I wasn't I didn't know that um I was gonna be taking on as much as I was. There was a lot of surprises. And when you showed up, it was kind of um that month before the race, it's probably uh two years ago to the day almost. Um it you could probably see the fear in in my eyes. I think it was just the realization was setting in that like I have no idea what's going on here. This I'm I mean over my head. I really felt um, I really felt it. And uh and so I think you spent the night uh at my place that night and uh and we hung out and drank a few beers. And then did you leave? You went back to Vancouver the next day.

Larry

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And then I think you called me up like a week later or something, and uh, and Larry just said, Hey man, do you do you need some help? And I didn't shy away from saying, Yes, I need help. And uh, and thank goodness I did. Larry's vision for logistics, for knowing how to get athletes around the course safely and you know, in a good way, his vision for making a finish line out of nothing and you know, uh uh for elevating the event way beyond what it would have been without him there. I was disappointed with how things were turning out. But Larry came and elevated it to a place where I could be proud of, where I could walk away from it feeling good about it. So me and Larry had talked throughout the week about possibly a partnership and moving forward together. Um, but we didn't necessarily know what that looked like, or if we would even be given the opportunity for more years to make that happen from the board. Um, luckily, when we all met after um they did present us with the opportunity to put put on more years. So um in 2019, we signed a five-year contract um with me and Larry uh as co-race directors. And unfortunately, we lost last year, but we've got this year back on and uh three more great years after this. So I'm really looking forward to it.

Larry

Yeah, and and this year we we are gonna be smaller because of the fact that international athletes are not gonna be able to travel to Canada, at least at this time, we don't know they're gonna be able to travel to Canada, and that's too close to the race. So we made it all Canadian. We we have had a few people drop that we were expecting to have to come as well. So we're gonna be going back to the roots. We're gonna go small, we're gonna we're gonna make it intimate. But for those people that have trained for two or three years now to to be in this race, we we are putting on the race for those people and we're gonna make sure that they get their opportunity to go to Kona this year if if they can apply and get in, like they're gonna have their finish. And and and for us, it's gonna be a very intimate race this year, I think. And and I'm really excited about that part of it. In the next episode, we will get together with Steve King now that we've introduced you to the to the podcast family, and we'll we'll do a little race preview. We'll talk about the people that are racing, we'll talk about how we're gonna move forward and and what the plans are around the race for this year. And and that'll wrap up kind of the the season of the podcast. And then as we introduce um and then the following podcast, we'll have an episode where we kind of talk about what happened at the race, and that'll be the start of season two, because as season two moves on, we'll now start introducing the athletes for 2022. And in 2022, we have a great field already in place. We have all these people that rolled over. We had a number of people that were already signed up, and it's gonna be a full race sold out, and we're gonna have a an amazing 2022. So that's kind of the the way moving forward. And and Brad, I I want to thank you for giving me so much of your time today and and telling us all of these great Ohana stories that you have. Um, I'm sure the people get to know how you are now as a as a family man, as a racer, and and some of these cool experiences that you've had, and and maybe they can come out and meet people like you have and and develop friendships like you and I have through doing these races. And um, I really appreciate the fact that you've taken this time to to sit down and talk to talk to me and and share it with the podcast listeners.

SPEAKER_02

Well, thanks for for having me here, Larry. It's been a lot of fun. And uh yeah, I definitely do want to say that uh uh Ohana is real. We do meet as strangers, compete as friends, and and leave as family. It's true.

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Larry Ryan

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