summaryIn this episode, James J Logan shares his remarkable journey through cancer, the mental and physical challenges he faced, and how his passion for Ironman triathlons fueled his fight for life. Discover how mindset, faith, and community support can turn adversity into a source of strength and purpose.

keywordscancer survival, Ironman triathlon, mental resilience, health journey, motivation, faith, overcoming adversity, life lessons, community support

key topics

• James's cancer diagnosis and treatment journey
• The role of mental resilience and faith in overcoming adversity
• How training for Ironman helped in his recovery and mental health
• The importance of community, charity, and giving back
• Lessons learned about life, death, and living intentionally

guest nameJames J Logan

titles

• From Near Death to Kona: James J Logan’s Inspiring Journey
• The Power of Mindset: Overcoming Cancer and Completing an Ironman

Sound Bites

• "Cancer reinvigorated my youthful desire"
• "Cancer doesn't have me, I have cancer"
• "Happiness is in the pursuit"

Chapters

00:00Introduction and James's initial health status

01:57Realization of aging and staying active

02:54Cancer diagnosis and the shock of it

04:13The mental and physical impact of chemo

08:08Maintaining fitness during cancer treatment

14:28The mindset shift: viewing obstacles as opportunities

20:51Writing the book and giving back to the community

26:04Living with an ostomy and challenges of training

39:11Humility, faith, and the importance of relationships

48:31Happiness in the pursuit and living intentionally

54:15Future plans, Kona, and ongoing purpose

Resources

• Ironman Foundation
• Georgia Cancer Center
• Book: Just Keep Tri-ing

Guest links

Instagram: stage42025

• https://ironmanfoundation.donordrive.com/participants/4148
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jim.logan.462536
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=just+keep+tri-ing&crid=MV8SS7X7XXEB&sprefix=%2Caps%2C316&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_2_0_recent

specialedrising.com

Ray's Respite Care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/join-rays-respite-care-mission

closed everything. Yeah, we're all good now.

⁓ and the the older you get, the harder life gets. I don't know what anyone told the younger folks, but it doesn't get easier.

for for sure.

Now, now it's,

and the funny thing about it, because we're, I think we're the same age, because I'm about to be 61. Yeah. So, you know, just the idea that in your mind, you never ever feel that, that number especially for someone like yourself who's so active and I'm very active person too. So it's really just about just continuing to get up and like you did when you were in high school and college and after that, you just got up and go, you know.

Yeah, I'm sixty one right now.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah,

that's I'd say one of the gifts and I talk about the gifts that cancer's given me, cancer being the worst thing that ever happened and the best thing that ever happened. that that was one of the gifts that cancer gave me is it reinvigorated my my youthful desire. So, you know, I think we're all a little bit guilty, especially as we get to be our age of complacency. You know, I built a successful business, it's already running itself. I don't have to do all the things I did to get it started. And when I look back, that was the real joy. Was in in the

Mm-hmm.

you know, in the beginning in the building of things. And I've kinda come to learn that with the Iron Man and with Triathlon that initially it was all about the finish line and then you realize that it's much deeper than that. The process, the journey, the daily struggle, the daily discipline, the nine months of training that you put in for the one day of racing is probably far more impactful than the actual one day of racing. and so, you know, the cancer after diagnosis kinda got me back to that

Yeah.

I think.

youthful perspective where the you know they said I was a terminal and and when I look back two and a half a little over two years ago, it was anything but the end. It was the beginning of so many other things. So, you know, writing a book, going to the world championship, those that was not on my radar, not even close. ⁓ but there but there it is, you know, you begin to dream again. And, you know, just 'cause you're sixty one doesn't mean you can't you can't do that. And you don't have to have cancer to do it either. You can just start right now. That's the best part, you know?

Yeah.

that's.

That's the best part. And if you don't have cancer, then it got a little bit of an advantage because you don't have to do that.

Yeah, yeah. Now you just need to

find a motivation. So, you know, cancer, you know, when your time gets limited, you hur either you either recede to the couch and give up or you hurry up and try to get a bunch of stuff done. I hurried up, you know. I use the analogy of a football game. If so I figured I had four quarters in life and each quarter would represent twenty years. And I if I figured if I lived to be eighty, that'd be great. And as I was approaching sixty I thought, you know, I'm going into the fourth quarter.

Yeah.

I'm way ahead on the scoreboard. It should you know, I'm in the good part of life now. And I thought I had a full fifteen minute quarter and a twenty year quarter and and three timeouts and and then you get the diagnosis and it's like, okay, it's under two minutes, no timeouts, we're in a hurry up offense. And and we're behind. We need a touchdown and a two point conversion. So the mindset shift took me about it took about six months. I was in shock at first and you know, you go from being perfectly healthy your whole life

Yeah, bad ones.

Yeah.

I've never been in a hospital. I mean, I've never had an issue to, you know, 24 chemotherapy sessions, five radiation treatments, and then surgeries to include the removal of 40% of my colon, 60% of my liver, all of my gallbladder, all of my rectum, resulting in the ostomy, which was just repaired yesterday. And this is the first time in 25 months that I don't have anything on my well, actually I will have I'll do be doing some maintenance chemo.

no.

But no medical procedures, no evidence of disease and and I I don't have really, as far as I can tell, much wrong with me right now. So knock on wood. hopefully I can maintain that posture for at least another three and a half months, which will get me to and through Kona, hopefully.

man, I'm so happy for you to hear that. And ⁓ you know, it's like, like you said, everybody has something and you could have something tomorrow, you could be great and tomorrow. And I'd like to talk about, to go back and talk about that a little bit with you because what often comes up on this show is the idea that we could all be disabled in a second you know? And so to not have an awareness of that, feel like we're Superman all the time, it's not realistic, we're not taught that,

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

part of our fallibility. We're just told how strong and great we are and all this kind stuff, which is wonderful because it helps us to achieve, but also be reminded that anything can happen at any time.

Yeah, there's a bit of arrogance that comes along with fitness. You know, I had sixty good years of really good fitness, three hundred races. When I was diagnosed I was a hundred and eighty five pounds, single digit body fat. I was the healthiest person I knew. I was the healthiest person anyone I knew knew. And and part of that p and that's pri part of the reason why I didn't investigate sooner, you know, as it led up to my diagnosis I said,

right?

There's really no no clues, no no nothing that would alert me to an issue. I blood tests and physicals and it flies under the radar. But when I look back, I realize that there were some there were some signs that I ignored because because of my fitness, I you know, you don't have a problem and then go, I must have stage four cancer. You just play it off like, you know, I'm tired, it's just a thing and it'll pass, you know, like a lot of things just pass, you know.

Thank you.

Thank

At that

time I was training seven days a week. That was, you know, kind of the thing. ⁓ and I was exhausted. The number one symptom that I felt was fatigue. And I thought that was just normal for an Iron Man. I'm a 60-year-old Iron Man, of course you're tired. Yeah. But I went and got a colonoscopy, and boom, out of the blue, I went from perfectly healthy to, you know, you're gonna die in six months, maybe two years. And that was 25 months ago. So another little tip to anyone listening, doctors don't know. They don't know what the future holds, they don't know how you're gonna handle chemo.

Yeah.

Of course,

They don't know how your tumors are gonna respond. I'm two years in and I'm exactly where I started. About the same weight, about the same body fat. I think my fitness is down a little bit for sure over two years. I've done my best to maintain, but back and forth, up and down, it's it's hard and I'm about to get started over again. So yeah.

can you just describe what the chemo is like for you for people who, I've never had to have that kind of treatment I just hear things about it, but what was your

It's it's

it's ⁓ it's as advertised. It's everything they tell you it is it's awful. and it's hard to prepare for it because everybody, like I said, reacts a little bit differently. The worst thing that I got was skin infection, level three skin infection, which not just on the surface of your skin, it's your your lips, your gums, your tongue, your my teeth cracked, broke, fell out. my my chemotherapy sessions were pretty pretty long. They last all day long. So you go in in the morning, about eight thirty, nine o'clock and

It takes about six hours to dump all the chemicals in. The first couple of hours they put precursors in just to prepare your body for what's about to come. you know, steroids and some other things that they use to they can't just dump the chemo on you. And they can't dump it all at the same time. So there has to be time released and it's all timed out perfect and then the you know, the one I had to take one pump home with me because one medicine takes forty eight hours to to deploy.

so it ends up being a two-day process and the first week after chemo you feel really rough. The second week you feel a little better. So it's like one week on, one week off. Try to take advantage of the week off to eat, exercise, and do whatever you can to maintain some sort of normalcy. And then you just do the best you can on on chemo week, which is like I said, you know, nausea, sickness. I mean it's it's you you can't sleep, you lose your appetite.

Appetite, some people get sensitivity to colds. So I mean the list goes on and on of of things that you know that are unimaginable. But over time, just like anything, kind of like I think Iron Man prepared me for, you know, I went from swim bike run to chemo radiation surgery. so pain and suffering is something I chose in my life and now it was a little bit of different kind of pain and suffering. But you adapt and you learned you know, the first six rounds were the hardest because I was adapting and learning.

By the time I'm into my twenty-fourth, you know, my last six rounds, you're a little more prepared for what's to come. And so, you know, that's helpful. I'm I'm much more prepared for it physically, mentally, and mentally is really the tough part because you're an athlete, you go from, you know, where I was, which was in pretty good shape, to losing thirty pounds and and getting a skin infection. I didn't even look like you wouldn't recognize me if you walked past me in the grocery store. I looked like I was dying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's

hard, you know, mentally to see yourself just disappear.

Yeah, just did. Yeah.

But the physical

part I can handle. Like I said, some people, you know, if you've been living a sedentary kind of easy lifestyle, you're gonna have a hard time. if you're if like in my case where you're doing Iron Man's, it's a little bit easier to you know, it's just a different kind of pain. But if you're if you're not used to pain and suffering in your life, you're gonna really struggle with it because it's a lot. You know, you're going from nothing to a to a lot. So and then you lose the mental part is the hard part is coming to terms with the fact that you're not the athlete you used to be and

Yeah.

Who knows, maybe you never will be. ⁓ but for me the motivation obviously going to the Kona World Championship is just a bind blower. but you know, you never know now, and I would say this to anybody who's racing, you know, even if it's just for fun, you never know which race is your last race. And one of the things I say when I go in the water now is I'll find somebody to talk to as I usually do, and I'll say, you know, there's gonna come a day that we can't do this anymore, but today is not the day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so really, really, really soak it in. I don't care if it's a sprint. I don't care if it's a five K fun walk. You never know which one's your last race, so they're all important. It's a funny question I always wanted to ask athletes that don't that don't race anymore. Did you know your last race was your last race? And if you did, would you have treated it differently?

that.

No.

Yeah, right. I do short races. I'm far from an Ironman, but I try to keep fit. And I just did a 2.2 mile race just last week for like a fundraiser. the idea, yeah, it's just like being a part of it. And like that in the moment, you're outside of yourself, life is the world is bigger than just you in that moment. But also it's that challenge for yourself to, you know, to be a part of it and to run into

Yeah. I love those. I love those. Yeah.

Yeah, and

be around like-minded people. Well I I always tell people, they're like, Well, Jim, I'm not an Iron Man and I you know, you're an Iron Man. It's like it doesn't matter. You don't have to do what I do. You you know, anyone can go and sign up for one of these little five K fun run. They call fun run walks because you can walk You know, anybody can walk a twenty minute mile. So you're in for about an hour. So grab your husband, grab your wife, grab a friend, grab your s son or daughter, do it with a friend, sign up.

Yeah.

Right.

You're supporting a local either a local charity or a local person. It's always for good. It's always for a cause. So right off the bat, you're doing charity. ⁓ and you're gonna feel better about yourself for that. You're gonna show up to this thing, you're gonna do a little exercise, you're gonna feel better about that, but you're also gonna meet people. you know, you might get a you might get a medal, you might get a t-shirt, you might get a cupcake or a cookie, depends on the race, you know. but you know, it's it's fun. Cross and finish lines, I don't care. If you walk across

Right. Exactly right off the

Later.

Or run across or cycle across. It's it's there's something about it for me that's just fun.

Yeah, no, there is that whole mental thing.

And I don't even care

if it's a two point two mile, if I'm walking with my wife, or a friend, it's still it's still fun. So

Yeah, and when you cross the finish line, you've accomplished something, And you've gotten up and you've done more than you would have done if you sat on the couch or stayed in the now.

Yeah, yeah. And the feeling

afterwards, you know, nobody ever I always tell people this too, is like you you don't have to work out. You get to. It's a privilege. so people like I have to work out is like you get to work out. You should be thankful you have nothing stopping you from working out. And I've I've never known anyone that does a workout that they didn't want to do and when they're done says, I wish I didn't do that. You know, you're always like, Man, I'm so glad I pushed through. I'm so glad I pushed through, even if it's not the best workout.

for sure.

Right.

Yeah, it was exactly.

Right, no, you don't have to have a great workout. You just have to have done it for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Even if you don't get the physical

benefit you wanted, you're gonna get the mental benefit.

And that's for me, that is what I grew to understand. Initially it was about, when you're younger, it's about getting in shape and that kind of stuff. But then you do realize the mental benefit to it in getting through your everyday life. And after a while, I know for myself, I need it. I need to have that.

so

when I got hospitalized, I was training pretty good the first four or four and a half months and I got hospitalized with the blood clots and I wasn't able to do anything and it's been about I don't know, I guess we're coming into four or five weeks now that I haven't been able to do much of anything and it's starting to get to that point where I'm feeling like I'm missing something in my life. It's affecting my mood. You can ask my wife, she's like, You need to do something, you need to you know, something's gotta give here. I was like, Don't worry, they're gonna let me go in a few days.

No, but it's 1000%. I asked about to describe the chemo is because of what the total takes on your body. How do you decide, sounds like really immediately that you were going to continue to train.

It was early

on. you know, so I got diagnosed in the first week of April of twenty four. I had an Iron Man scheduled in Texas two weeks later in in t of twenty four. So chemo wasn't starting until after that and I just decided I thought I already paid for everything. We got the hotels, we got everything. So I could either sit here and wait for chemo, or I can go do what I had planned to do and see what happens. so we went down there and

The race didn't go so well. I was not feeling great, obviously. They got about 80 miles through the bike and had to bail out. So I got seven or eight hours in, but it was really disappointing. one of the reasons I kept doing training and kept doing the Iron Man races is I didn't want my last race to be my last race. I wasn't happy with that finish. ⁓ and I didn't want that to be my final moment on the stage, you know. So about a week into the we came back from that, started chemo, and

there.

You know, like you, I I knew nothing of chemo. I just knew what I had heard about it and figured, you know, you're not gonna be able to do anything on chemo. I just pictured people curled up in a ball, you know, just waiting their way through it and that's what I figured I would do. but about a week in, I got really bored with it, you know, and I was waiting for the bad stuff and it was not bad, but it wasn't like 'cause chemo's cumulative, so when you do the first couple of rounds, it's not so bad.

Okay.

Over time it builds and gets worse and worse. It's kinda like poisoning or something, you know? Yeah. The more poison you get, the worse it gets. ⁓ but I told my wife, I said, Look, one weekend I said, I I don't know what I'm gonna do, I don't know what this is gonna do, but I can tell you what I'm not gonna do. I'm not gonna sit on this couch for till I die. That's what I'm not gonna do. I said, Cancer might kill me, chema might kill me, but swimming, biking, running, not gonna kill me.

Building. Sure.

Okay.

And I told her, if I die on the swim, I died with a grin. If I die on the bike, I died doing something I like. If I die on the run, I was having fun. So I'm not gonna sit here and just wait to die. That I'm not gonna do. I have cancer. Cancer doesn't have me. Cancer can do what it's gonna do. I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do. And what I kind of proved, initially my oncologist was not on board with the long distance training and the and the Iron Man races. She's okay with lighter stuff, but not with the big stuff. But what I learned is

Yeah.

Yeah.

That you can build and maintain muscle and you can actually increase physical fitness while you're on chemo. Chemo does what it does, but it doesn't prevent you from doing what you want to do. Doesn't prevent you from building muscle, maintaining muscle, increasing VO2 max. I did all those things. it wasn't easy, but it happened and I can prove it because it's on my garment. ⁓ yeah, so one doesn't affect the other. Now the reason most people lose weight and have all the problems they do with chemo is because

Hmm.

Wow, that's incredible.

They do as I said before, they curl up on the couch, they become more sedentary. Understandably, I'm not knocking anyone for doing that, because I did it too. it takes a Herculean effort mentally to get your ass off that couch and onto a bike. I did mostly mostly an indoor stationary bike, which is one of my favorite things anyway. Logistically, it's simple because it's right here and I can go to the bathroom, I can get drinks or fluids, or it just logistically was the easiest way to get a workout in.

Mm-hmm.

.

Bye.

But strange thing happens, just like it always does. It was really hard to get out of bed or off the couch and onto the bike. But about 10 minutes in, something happens and it starts feeling good. Not only does it start feeling good, but a lot of the chemo symptoms go away. So what a lot of people they think I'm this hero, like, look at you working out on the bike with chemos. Like, it's the only place I feel good. So it's a strange thing. W when you start doing something you enjoy, it kind of erases the negative impact.

you.

really.

of the chemo. So it ended up being kind of a a like a happy place in my day.

Yeah, was it the distraction of it or was the actual physicality of it that kind of worked?

I think the

blood flow, the hormones, I think all the all the positive benefits that you that I would receive when I didn't have cancer, I was getting when I did have cancer. And I think all of that didn't hamper my effort to heal. I think it I think it enhanced it. Yeah, I think it assisted the chemo. The chemo's killing the tumors. I'm building muscle, it's destroying you know, I don't think chemo kills muscle is what I'm saying. I think I think when you start doing chemo, people stop living the way they used to. Stop

It's amazing.

Yeah.

doing the things they used to. If you just sit on the couch and eat ice cream and shakes, it's because your appetite goes away. So a lot of people resort to just foods that taste good or or foods that have a lot of calories. Otherwise you just you're gonna wither away, you know?

Right. And foods that are tolerable, would imagine, too,

Absolutely. Yeah. So there were foods that I would like to eat but that I couldn't I couldn't chew and swallow. I did a lot of protein shakes 'cause one symptom that you wouldn't realize, but my your my tongue swap got swollen and my teeth cracked and broke from the from the chemo, so I had like shards of sharp tooth rubbing against the swollen tongue and it was like little paper cuts. So a lot of the chemo stuff wasn't like

Right.

my

Horrible blood curdling screen pain. It was just annoying all day doesn't go away pain. ⁓ You know, it's not terrible, but it's there. You know, ⁓ yeah. Just constant, like an ingrown toenail or something. I mean, you're not gonna call in sick for it, but it's gonna bother you all day long. And so you get a lot of that kind of stuff. ⁓ which can wear on you mentally. Again, that's another mental drain, is like just constant.

Yeah.

like being constantly old by something, yeah.

Yeah.

Sure, sure.

Did you see any?

I mean the desire to just check out at that point, to think it's something you've got to fight all the time.

I think a mistake

some people make too is and the doctors make every prescription and you know, you can have anything you want. If you have a symptom and a side effect, they'll try to they'll try to medicate it. Early on I tried to use medication to medicate certain things and each medication you take has about ten different side effects. So now you're not only dealing with chemo side effects, you're dealing with pill side effects and you end up having twenty five prescriptions. I said, You know what, I'm just gonna I'll just deal with the chemo side effects and we'll leave all the pills aside. So I don't really take it

Anything other than the chemo. ⁓ yeah.

Amazing.

It's a conscious decision that you made on your part. You didn't want to do it.

Yeah. Well it's too much. I mean

I've got l cancer in my liver. My liver's struggling. I don't need to be having all that that medication in there as well. So I don't know why this thing keeps doing this.

Yeah, cycling processing.

Did you do any research or was that just an instinctual thing to do to say, I'm going to push through?

Once once they diagnosed

me, I did almost no research whatsoever. I'm not one of these guys that guys to go down the rabbit hole and look for look for cures. I got people calling me every day. Hey, you know, if you go to if you go to Costa Rica, there's a guy in the mountains, you go spend two weeks with him and he'll cure you. It's like, yeah, I don't think so. I went with my I I I talked to a lot of people and mostly the people I listened to were the people who've had cancer and survived.

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes.

And all of them

used modern medicine. All of them went to the best hospitals, got the best doctors, and did what most people are doing. I know a lot of people are chemo will kill you and pharmacies want to keep you alive so they can make money. And I don't, you know, I don't know about any of that. But I've had good experiences. I got one of the best cancer centers in the world, three miles from my house. Northside Forsyth Forsyth is three miles from my house, Georgia Cancer Center. I've got a great oncologist.

And when I have surgeries, I go down to I go down to Emery and the Wind Chip Cancer Center where I have you know world renowned doctors and I get world class treatments. So yeah, I'm going with my people, thanks. And it's working for me, and I don't knock anyone, you know. He would say, You should go holistic. And I Yeah, how'd that work out for Steve Jobs? He had all the resources in the world, and he was dead in six months. So, you know, people make their choice. Some people choose not to do treatment.

That's all.

Yeah, right exactly.

And just ride it out. And I I had that moment when I first went in for chemo. I sat in front of the building for about twenty minutes waiting to go in because I knew it was the beginning. I was scared to death of the building. I was scared of the chemo. I was scared of dying. And at some point I just you know, I thought about not going in and then I thought about my wife and my son and so I just went in and and and you know, went went into that unknown world. That's one of the reasons I

Got the idea to write the book as as I entered that world, the cancer world, the cancer center world, the you know, the infusion rooms which are morbid, said it's kinda like being in a morgue, only everybody's still alive. And you can see the despair and the hopelessness. in people's eyes. And it's just not my style. The rooms are really quiet. And and so I decided to write the book, hoping that maybe I could help some.

Yeah.

people, give some faith to the faithless, hope to the hopeless, and and kind of prove that anything's possible through my efforts with Iron Man and you know, just because you have cancer doesn't mean you're dead. you know, you still have a life to live. And once I stopped really worrying about dying, then I could really focus on living, which has been a gift in itself. you know, writing the book initially was for other people, but it ended up being really good therapy for me as well.

I spent a little over a year writing it. I really put a lot of time and effort into it. And it was right through the heart of my treatment and right through the heart of my training for Iron Man. And you know, when I set out to go to the Kona World Championship, I had no idea how I was gonna get there. As an age grouper, I don't have the speed to win my way in. So when I signed up for Iron Man Florida, I signed up for the Iron Man Foundation, which is the charitable wing of the foundation, decided to raise money for them.

Sure.

Thank

give back to the community that's given so much to me over the years. And that's how I met Audra, that's how I got involved with the foundation and that's how I got invited to Kona.

Okay, that's wonderful.

Yeah, it was really it was really just ⁓ you know, I went from October of twenty twenty four being right on death's door pretty much to getting some good results and having some surgical options open up and at that point I realized that you know, it wasn't a death sentence, that I was still alive and I still could do things. And since then it's really just everything has really just kind of opened up for me.

that had to be.

No.

And like I said, I have the mindset of you know, I don't really feel much different than I did before the cancer diagnosis. It took a little time to get here mentally. You know, you it's you get knocked off your off your foundation and then you gotta get back up and kind of reset yourself. But fortunately I I had a good mindset, I had a lot of discipline and I had a lot of those things in place beforehand. So once I got my wits about me I was able to get back to where I was basically.

that.

Right.

Yeah, because in your book, you talk about the discipline and sacrifice and suffering. And you are a particular human being because there's very few iron men and iron women. So you have to have that internal fortitude to be able to overcome the pain.

Yeah.

yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

get through

those competitions. So it's not for everybody. But there people like myself that do understand and have gone through stuff too, maybe not to the degree, but you learn and you say, okay, like you said, right, the best thing and the worst thing that ever happened. And you learn from that. So we can all try to find a way to relate in some way. How do you make that connection for people? Because again, you're an extreme example of somebody who's so driven and able to overcome these things.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. For for me initially it was I've always drawn on fitness for strength. I've been self employed my whole life. I've had ups and downs, backs and forths, been been, you know, up and down, rich and broke, back and forth. So the one thing that's been steady throughout my life is fitness. I call it the keel of my boat. but once I got cancer too, I I I've always been a faithful guy. I've always believed in God and heaven, but it wasn't full of faith. And once once I reached a point where I was close to death, I really leaned more into my faith and

begin to pray more and kind of worry less. faith replaces fear and that's been a tremendous joy. So as a Christian, I know I'm going to heaven, so I stopped worrying about dying. Once I stopped worrying about dying, things started happening in my life that I could have never imagined, like writing the book, like doing these podcasts and all the things that I'm doing now. I'm trying to raise a hundred thousand dollars for the Iron Man Foundation. The profits from the book are going to the fundraising goal until we reach that goal.

Yes.

So the whole thing kinda came together as I promised what what I did was is I kinda I don't know how much time I had left to live, so I pretty much promised that I would live the rest of my life in some sort of service, some some way to kind of give back. And the book was the first step and then the triathlon came second with the fundraising and then I decided to put the two together 'cause it just seemed like such a natural thing to do, you know? And that's how I know kinda like this feels like it's meant to be, like this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Yeah.

I wrote the book, people are seeming to like it. a lot of people are giving me some really good feedback. And initially when I wrote the book I said if it helps one person I'd be okay with that. and

Cheers.

I know I've helped more than one person because I've already heard back from people. So, you know, initially when I had friends and family read the book, you know you're gonna get good feedback from them. So, but the book has gone out beyond my my my immediate warm circle, and I've gotten some really good feedback from some people that are pretty respectable. So I think the book is a pretty quality thing. I think people anyone that reads it will get something out of it. And the proceeds go to the foundation, which is

Sure, everybody's buying us food.

The Iron Man Foundation, 501c3, tax deductible. They've been around for over 20 years, highly rated, $60 million distributed over 20 something years in 60 countries. So they do a lot of good things like they give bicycles to kids who don't have them. They teach kids to swim. and and usually in the communities that we race in. So, you know, if I I raise $10,000 for Panama City, that will go into Panama City.

Mm-hmm.

Wonder.

and we'll teach

kids to swim and we'll te get kids bicycles that don't have bikes and you know, for me growing up in the seventies, a bicycle was a a rite of passage and it was a big deal. And I remember every bike I ever I ever had, especially the first ones. so for those kids to to get a bike it's a b it's a big deal. So

That was it.

that part of it has been, you know, racing, they call it racing for more, has been as rewarding as training for the Iron Man. My personal goal, it's my personal goal to cross that line in Kona. hopefully a few people will be inspired along the way. if Jim can do that, then you know, what what what what's possible for me? And it's the same for the five when they teach a kid to swim. If you have a kid who doesn't know how to swim, they're scared to death of the water. but you teach a kid to swim.

Now they've overcome the obstacle they thought previously insurmountable. What will happen when they come across another obstacle like that? They're not going to walk away from it or be afraid from it. They might think, Well, I can do that if I if I get some help and work at it. So I I call it the gift that keeps on giving and it feels really good to be doing that at this point in my life because as I said earlier, I'd become a bit complacent you know, at at my age and my wife's

Yeah.

does well in real estate and I was a home inspector for thirty years and you know, we're not rich but we're not broke. we got it pretty good, you know. but but you tend to lean back at some point and you're not working as hard as you used to. You're not you're not and I would say you're not probably as fulfilled as you used to be, whether you realize it or not. So and our lifestyle these days makes it easy to lean back and and take take a load off, you know. there's so much so much entertainment and so many

things that would just you know, and just life in general. You get old, you get tired, it's harder and harder to motivate yourself to get out there and do the things that you know you need to do. But that's what discipline is. And and discipline, like your brain, I say discipline and your mind are are no different than your muscles. They need to be they need to be worked every day. ⁓ otherwise you'll get weak. ⁓

Yeah.

That's it. Yeah, I

was gonna say if you don't practice those things all the time, it gets easier to not, or harder to.

Yeah, you don't

you don't wake up one day and have discipline and and you're not born with it. So it's that's something that everyone can develop and it doesn't mean we're all gonna be Tom Brady. But you know, I always say you know you see Tom Brady's a great example of what discipline can do. You know, when you have good daily habits and and you repeat those consistently over a long period of time, you may not win seven Super Bowls, but but you're gonna have pretty good success in your life. Yeah.

Absolutely, and you know

it's about the everydayness of life. I mean, I've had people in the past, I remember someone telling me, you know, why do you have this healthy diet and all this kind of stuff? You could die when you're 50. These people die. I'm like, well, yes, it's true, I could, but you know what? The day that I'm living right now is a more enjoyable day because I feel good today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you bring up a point there and I've had people say to me, Jim, you live the health and fitness lifestyle, you're an Iron Man, and here you've got stage four terminal cancer. What's my motivation to do anything more than what I'm doing when when it didn't work out for you and I have to explain to them that they're a little confused. You think I live the health and fitness lifestyle to extend my years. I I live the health and lifestyle to improve my years. ⁓ I'm I'm not trying to extend my years on on earth. I'm trying to improve my years on earth. So

Yeah.

Right.

It was never for me about living longer. It's about living better. yeah.

Yeah, because that idea

of arrogance as the arrogance of an athlete thinking that you you're the Superman and you can live forever. You know, if we're connected, we know that we don't. So not about elongating our life. Well, great, if we can a little bit, that's wonderful. But really, it's the existence of the everyday.

Yeah. And then the other part

of that is I'm more prepared to handle a life crisis, a terminal disease, than if you're, you know, a hundred pounds overweight and the doctor says, you need to lose weight but you can't work out or you have a heart problem or you have diabetes or, any number of issues, anything, I mean other and I've laughed about this, other than cancer, I'm perfectly healthy.

Mm-hmm.

organ function,

blood pressure. I mean, you get rid of the cancer. I'm I'm a picture of health. That's why when I go in for my screenings and you know, before surgeries and whatnot, they're like medications, none. Allergies, none. you know, weight, perfect. Blood pressure, perfect. There's just this this cancer, man. So, yeah. Just this one thing. So it's not unusual for me. I tend to be a bit of an extreme person anyway. So it's not a surprise that I went from perfectly healthy to, my God, I'm gonna die.

It's just this one thing, man. That's all.

You know what I mean? But you know what's really funny is the doctor told me I was terminal and that I was gonna die. And after a little while I realized it's like that was true before I had cancer. Yeah, we're all terminal, we're all gonna die. So once I got around that, it's like, yeah, so nothing new there. Tell me about the cancer. ⁓ you know what I mean? So yeah, of course I'm gonna die. But it's a good question to ask yourself, you know, especially as you get older. Nobody ever examines the like, what if I did die? What if I died suddenly?

We're all gonna die.

That's it.

you know, is your is your family gonna be okay? Your wife and kids, can they stay in the same house? Can they go to the same school? being self employed, I've always been, again, with the discipline, really good with insurance. Health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, errors and emissage insurance, homeowners insurance, car insurance. I mean it's so much insurance, it's ridiculous. But it finally paid off. You know, it finally paid off. So

Yeah.

you know, I get the best care, I have a low deductible, you know, I'm not being crushed financially with the cancer. I have great treatment, great doctors, great support. And I I tell people, you know, if you really want to survive, you have your best shot at surviving a a a horrible diagnosis, it really helps. It's not one thing, it's everything. So, you know, I have my wife handling all the billing and stupid nonsense that I don't want to deal with. All I have to do is go and and handle cancer, that's it.

Yeah,

that's enough.

And I've now

I've narrowed my life down, especially when I entered this year I was no evidence of disease, first week of the year, prolapse stoma, recognized three large tumors back in chemo. So everything went crazy and I figured after thirty years of home inspection, I probably didn't need I'd done fifteen thousand home inspections over thirty years. I don't think I need to do any more. So I've narrowed my focus to just a couple of things, which is arrive alive in Kona.

Okay.

with enough fitness to finish that race in under seventeen hours. And you know, when I started this almost a year ago, it's hard to tell where you're gonna be that far out with cancer. But now that I'm this close, it looks very real that I'm certainly going to make it alive. We'll see about the fitness. ⁓ but that was the first goal. The second was to publish the book, promote the book, and then third was to raise the money, raise a hundred thousand dollars for the Iron Man Foundation.

Yeah. Let's get it.

So those are the three things that I focus on each day. And it's really been it's been a nice little turn in my life. I never thought I'd be here, but I'm so glad that I am. So much so that if I had the opportunity to go back and get rid of the cancer, I would I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't change anything about the last couple of years. As hard as it's been, I wouldn't change it because I've had too many too many gifts. I'd say one of the gifts cancer gave me was the gift of time.

Yeah.

And time gives you opportunities. What you do with that is up to you. but I would ask anyone, never mind cancer, if you only had two years to live, which is what they gave me, would it change the way you're living? And if it would, then do that. Don't don't wait. You know, you could you could take you could do that every two years. You know, and say, Okay, so for me, I had lived a pretty charmed life.

Right, anyway, yeah.

Yeah, that's a good

You know, I moved to Georgia in ninety three, met and married my wife in ninety six, started my business in ninety six. I've been happily married to Kelly for thirty years. I think she's been happily married for twenty five of those years.

Which one?

She'd say she'd say twenty two. no, but

she's been wonderful. We have a great relationship. Cancer has strengthened our relationship in a way that's unimaginable. where we're so close. you know, w when you the true measure of of true love is not during the good times. Anyone has fun on their honeymoon, that's easy. It it comes when, you know, you your wife has to take care of you. I I had to humble myself as the man of the house and the fearless protector and

now I'm down on my back and I can't do anything. ⁓ and it's been a beautiful thing watching her take care of me and and and humbling myself and letting her do that. It's like w it's really hard as a man. ⁓ but but when you don't let the people that love you help you, you take something away from them because that's all they can do is is help you ⁓ or assist you. And and the bottom line is I need I need the help. So ⁓ it's been a humbling experience as well as well. I'd say the two

Thank

Yeah.

sin two biggest sins I committed in my later years were being complacent and lacking humility. So now I've got more humility. My relationships are across the board, friends, family, new friends that I'm meeting every day like yourself. it's just been it's there's so much good has come from it. and it's a hard thing, you know. Everything that happens in your life, if you look at it hard enough, i it it can be it can you can find a silver lining. Even me, I was just in the hospital

I was not able to sleep the night of my surgery because I had this epiphany. After the first five months of this year I started asking myself, Why does everything have to be so freaking hard? you know, I I I I'm like asking for a break, but you know, you don't negotiate with cancer. Cancer doesn't really care about my Iron Man. ⁓ but but when I was laying there and I thought, Why are all these obstacles being placed in my path? All I want to do is go do this stupid race seventeen hours.

Yeah, but it's true.

And then I realized that, you know, maybe they're not obstacles, maybe these are just opportunities to prepare to make me stronger. Because what I've been through in the last five months is nothing nothing that can happen to me in that 17 hours on that course on one day is gonna match the last 23 months that I've been through. So I've created a kind of a strength that you can't build in a traditional training program. I've done the traditional training.

Thank

that.

And and I still need to do more of that to finish the race. But the mental fortitude and the physical, the mental and the spiritual strength that I've built over the last twenty-four months can withstand anything you throw at me for seventeen hours. And and when I had that epiphany, I was like, Okay, so these aren't obstacles. This is an opportunity to prepare to be stronger ⁓ for for that day. And then again, it was just a mindset thing, you know, where you kind of shift your mindset to

Yeah, it makes sense.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

These aren't obstacles to prevent you from getting there. These are opportunities to prepare you to be stronger when you are there. right. Right. Yeah.

Right, meet, to go meet that, yeah. And

also it's mentally, we talk about the mental, it's just there's a goal ahead, right? So you're keeping something out in front of you. you.

And that was the other

thing that I came to learn through cancer, and people ask why are you doing this when you have cancer, you know, you know, why are you doing it? is initially it was about the finish line. And what I realized was during cancer and treatment, it was about more about just getting to the start line. I don't care what happens after that. Just get me to the start line and we'll see what we can do. You know what I mean? ⁓ and and then I and then at some point it became

Mm-hmm.

I do.

You know, when you become a little more philosophical about, you know, why do you do this race? Why are you doing this race? And it's it can ends up being, you know, yeah, the finish line is important, so is the start line. But but it's the day to day that gets me through the day. It's the it's the what's on my schedule today, that working toward that larger goal. And again, none none of these lessons you cannot have cancer and benefit from this as well. Put a date on your calendar, choose something big and difficult.

And you'll be surprised at how you wake up and try to figure out how am I gonna you know, what do I have to do today to achieve that goal. Nobody does anything big in one day. I'm not gonna wake up tomorrow and do an Iron Man. But if I do the if I do the little workouts that I need to do each day, then those building blocks will lead to that larger accomplishment. So you never have to do any big thing on any one day. You just gotta do a bunch of little things. And we can all do little things.

Yeah.

Right.

I said, even if it's not an Iron Man, if you're you know, just get get off the couch and clean a room. It's funny that, you know, how how motion has momentum for me. You know, moving has momentum and and doing things makes you feel good. And the more you do it, you the more you wanna do it. So you can start with something simple and just see where see where it leads you, you know.

No?

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean.

creative.

Whatever your goal is, doesn't have to be an athletic.

I said

it's like you know, you could be you could be an avid chess player, you could be a a gardener. if you love gardening, go garden. That's what I you I love trathlons. People like why why are you doing trathlons? I don't know, I guess I've just been doing it for forty years. It's kinda hard to break that habit, you know. I the another analogy is, you you we've all seen you go up to the hospital and you see the guy that's out there with the oxygen tanks and the oxygen on and he's smoking a cigarette, probably just had a heart attack. Why is he doing that? It's habit. That's what he's been doing for however many years. So

I like it.

Yeah, right.

That's his goal.

For most

people they don't make big wide sweeping changes in their life after they go back to what they're used to doing. We're all creatures of habit, so in general most people are going to recede back to whatever their habit was. And that's why a lot of people go back You know, that's what I told my wife Kelly is like I don't drink much alcohol, but I do like to go out to Mexican and have a margarita and

then.

bit.

For a few moments you feel and that's what you kinda crave normalcy. You just want things to be normal and you want people to treat you normal. I don't want people to treat me like I have cancer. Half the time I don't even remember I have cancer. ⁓ you know, you look at me, you wouldn't know I have cancer. there's no outward signs unless you knew me that I have cancer or they maybe figure out the do right. I my my I had a level three skin infection which made my head kinda blotchy and messy and hair was so I started wearing the

Right.

me.

him.

I think.

The little cancer hats. And actually wore these before the diagnosis, for training and whatnot. So now I've been in the habit, I just don't I just don't take it off, you know what mean? So ⁓ but other than that I told my wife, I said, I'm gonna have to start bringing a proof of cancer card. So when people I go to Kona and they're like, You don't have cancer, I was Yes I do. Proof of cancer

That's like right

I'm out of looks.

I have two questions that I want to ask you, talking about what we just talking about, you're open about living with an ostomy, right?

Then I've

learned this recently, so the medical education I've gotten has been great. So this is an iliostomy. So the colostomy or the ostomy would be from the colon. The colon is where my cancer was. So when they cut the cancer out for the cut the rectum out, they leave that area alone so it can heal. They jump over and they put an ileostomy on the small intestine to bypass that process. So my colon has been offline since September of twenty-five.

Okay.

I had the option to reattach, but the surgery is difficult and the recovery is long would knock me out of Kona. So I opted to just do the repair and do the race with the bag as opposed to going for the reattach. ⁓ but I have the option to reattach after the race.

Okay.

How is running with the bag? How is the... Yeah.

Running is the hardest. and

it's not because running is hard and running is hard. But especially downhill, what you begin to realize is how much pressure is on the abdominals when you run, especially on a downhill. And that was what was causing a lot of my you know, I have a hole in my stomach, so i if you push on the left side, something's gonna come out the right side. So if you put pressure on the abdomen and over and over and over again, you know, they say walking is very good, but running or any kind of rigorous activity can force can force the

Can force the intestines out. First time it happened, it was kind of freaky. So the the small intestine is about it's they're about as wide as your finger. That's about what it looks like, like a like a like about as wide as your finger. And that's about how far it came out of my stomach, about a finger length. But you can feel it in the bag. It's like a French fry down there. It's like that's not right. So the first time I went to the emergency room, I'm like, it's falling out, it's falling out. They're like, yeah, settle down. It's not medically dangerous. You've got like a hundred miles of this stuff.

Okay.

Ha ha!

There's no nerve endings on the intestines. So you can hit this thing with a hammer, burn it with a cigar. You can't feel it. Which is a kind of a benefit. And so they they I expected an expensive surgical solution, you know what I mean? Everything I've done has always been like, all right, here we go again. So the other surgeon came in and he put some table sugar on it, which shrunk it, and then he shoved it back in. And then he told me, he said it happens again, you could do it yourself at home. So that's what I've been doing for the last

Holy cow. Yeah, sure.

goodness.

Because I got the prolapse in January. I got they noticed the cancer, then I went on chemo. Well, you can't do surgery on chemo, so this is medically unimportant, so it had to wait. So the problem I had with training was I could wear a belt that would hold it in, but then the belt would cause the bag to leak. So it's either holding the intestines, leaky bag. It's been a logistical nightmare for five months. So I was happy to finally get in there and take care of what started all this.

Okay.

Yep.

So it feels like it began with the prolapse, now it's ended with the prolapse, and now I'm now I have a clean slate. I don't see I say clean slate for now, but you know, after everything that's happened in the last five months, you just literally cannot predict what will happen in the next few months. So, you know, I got my fingers crossed and I've learned to be cautiously optimistic. I don't expect for nothing to happen. But I do know now that I have the mindset of whatever does happen.

That's good.

Right.

I'll use it as an opportunity to get stronger. Mentally, physically, spiritually, whatever way possible. You have to take the tragedies in your life and turn them into triumph. And it doesn't matter what it is. you don't I said you don't have to be an Iron Man if you Yeah, that's why I like dogs. I have a couple of dogs. I've always had dogs. Dogs don't treat me any different. They don't care that I have cancer. They don't care about my f iliostomy or any of that stuff.

Yeah

Yeah.

Bye bye.

So if you get a pack

of dogs and one dog gets hit by a car and loses a leg, they amputate the leg and then you put the dog back in the yard with the other dogs. The other dogs don't treat that dog any different. You you're gonna have to learn to run on three legs if you think you're gonna catch the ball from me with four legs. 'Cause we're not giving you a break. So I I wish in some senses people were more like that because a lot of times, you know, you say cancer and people treat you differently. they just do. You know, like you're delicate or like you're infectious or

Imagine.

Yeah.

And then and then I have a a sense of humor about it, you know. I was teasing with my wife, and you can't really do or say anything that would offend me. I was teasing with my wife that they gave me two years and I said, Are you upset? She's like, Well about what? I was like, Well you said I was gonna be dead in two years. I assume you made some plans. You're gonna have to delay that condo in Florida. I'm still here. It's like you said two years, the guy's still here, what's going on?

Yes.

Exactly. bags are packed.

Yeah. So that the

yeah, the whole thing for me now is is is that it's come full circle and it did like tell you see me now, but this isn't where I started. I started in a really bad place mentally. It got bad physically and then I had to really, really, really reevaluate everything and decide what's important and how I want to live. One of the motivating factors for me is my twenty one year old son. I only have one son and he spent twenty one years teaching him how to live and the last lesson any parent will teach a child is how to die.

It's morbid, it sucks, but it's part of the job and I wanna do that the right way.

Right. Yeah, now it's a powerful story, man. And I mean, I think it's important for people to hear that last part too, because it doesn't come with just because I'm an Ironman and I've got the discipline and all this stuff automatically. I oh, cancer, okay, and I'll just deal with it. It's process that you have to go through. I don't think there's anybody who's gonna take that news and feel, oh, okay, whatever about it. What I wanna ask you before we go is that, you talk about Kelly, your wife, because my girlfriend just had diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She had it out, she had a radiation round.

Yeah. Yeah.

Just

recent, huh?

Just recently, yeah, she's just coming out of the radiation right now, actually. ⁓

How old is she?

Okay. Yeah, thyroid's a tough one in the neck. did they do the whole Wow. Yeah. S neck is scary. That scares I mean I I colo I you know, my I if I had a choice I would choose colorectal cancer. Yeah, it's 'cause the th I've known people with the throat stuff and that's thyroid, but anything in this area affects eating.

Yeah, they did that. Yep, they took it out. Yeah. So, you spent...

Yeah.

Right. And so

he came out of it really well. She had great surgeons and they did a good job. Anyway, the idea, the question I want to ask is, you know, for me as a support, like I couldn't be with her And, you know, it's really, really challenging to care for somebody and watch them go through what they've got to go through. So just Kelly's reaction in response to how this whole went down. Could you just talk about that for a few minutes?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I mean obviously we were both kind of blown away. and for me it was the hardest part of all of this was telling her. And when it came time to tell her, I literally became mute. I couldn't formulate words. we were both very emotional. you know, we had plans like everybody else. and to suddenly think and that's part of, you know, when they told me I was gonna die, I believed them. So that's what I told my wife. And I wasn't strong enough at the time to see things the way I see it now.

And for Kelly and she'll tell you this, it's gotten better and better for both of us throughout the time. She's you know, you come to a point of acceptance and you come to a point of realization that we're not gonna be together forever, but we're really happy for the time that we've had together and we've said all that needs to be said and and

As long as I'm doing good is what she likes to say. As long as I'm doing good, she's doing good. and you know, like said, to look at me. You know, I'm back to a hundred and eighty pounds, ten percent body fat. you know, I've got no cancer, I've got this stupid bag on my stomach, but that's okay. And as long as I'm doing good, as long as I'm you know, right now I'm thriving. I'm I wrote a book, I'm I'm speaking at the Rotary Clubs, the Kowanas Clubs, I'm on podcasts with you, I'm doing news media and print press. I'm going to the Iron Man.

I'm doing a lot of things that were not on my radar and I'm I'm alive, I'm thriving, I'm th I'm I'm feeling better than I've felt since like I said, since I'm in my twenties. I've got that same kind of youthful entrepreneurial spirit that had left me over the decades. And it wasn't purposeful. It sneaks up on you. Complacency sneaks up on you. Day by day, little by little, and you become complacent. And just because you're old, you know, I've never liked the idea of retiring.

Yeah, you got...

sure.

My wife and I have never talked about it. ⁓ I always love the work that I do, so it's not a big deal. I like going to work. But I just had to replace my work. So it's kind of funny because I retired from home inspection thinking that it would give me more time to do the things that I want to do. Well it turns out you still only get twenty-four hours in a day. I didn't get any more time. And now I'm busier than I was before. I'm like, how d how did this happen? So I you know, you gotta stay busy, I really think. You gotta find something.

Yeah.

Okay.

that keeps you engaged, something that you're reaching for, striving for, maybe something that's just a little out of your reach, maybe almost impossible. which gives you that feeling like you want to get up in the morning, you're chasing something important. And and that's the other realization that I kind of came to after, you know, 60 years of pursuing happiness, I realized that happiness is in the pursuit. It's not in a destination. It's not somewhere tomorrow or the next day. It's today. Happiness is in the day that you're in.

it.

And it's in the pursuits. So if you don't have pursuits in your life, get some. You know, find something to pursue. Find something you're passionate about. It could be charity, you know, it it could be as simple as grabbing a friend and saying, let's do a 5K walk in a month. We put it on the calendar, we'll get together on Sundays and train for it, and then we'll go do it. And that's a pursuit. You wake up in the morning, you're thinking, Okay, I gotta get ready for that for that 5K.

Yeah.

And for some people like us, or or if you're like us or you have the same feeling I do, you cross that finish line, you feel really good, I guarantee you're gonna make some new friends. And the coolest thing about what's happened to me and and just re-engaging and you know doing the things that I'm doing is meeting all the people that I'm meeting. I've expanded my reach and my social my social friendships so much more from cancer. Just from sharing my story,

Yeah, I know.

or fish for.

so many people have told me that they enjoy the conversations that we're having and that I'm having with some others. It's helped them in a way. And for me that's all that matters. I mean, I don't know how many people we'll reach today, but if one person gets something out of it then we've done a good thing.

Yeah.

I agree man and I tell you, you you got a new friend here. I immediately felt that way because you were so open in the best way in the emails and I felt connected and I was like this was not any like I woke up this morning like oh cool I'm just gonna go have a conversation with this rake.

Absolutely, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah, and for me

it's nothing off limits. a couple of people have said, Is there anything you don't want to talk about? I was like, That's another joy that cancers give me is there's the more uncomfortable a topic, the more comfortable I am talking about it because those are the things you really need to talk about that we all avoid, you know. and again, same thing, you know, if you you know, I I did plan. I didn't plan to die, but I I we had plans in place if I did die. And for a lot of people, if you know, if you're in your

What?

40s and you th you don't you think you're invincible, you might have a wife and a couple of kids, good job and a house, but if you died, would they be able to maintain all that? So to have a life insurance policy, get it when you're young, because they're cheap. I I paid I think a hundred dollars a month for my policy. It was a term policy and it it actually expired in twenty twenty five. But I was able to sell it on the open market. So you can actually sell a term policy. They're just banking on me dying, they're gonna lose their money.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're already

they they they made a bad bet on me. ⁓ so

I was going to

say that initially that was a really good advertisement for insurance companies.

Yeah,

you know, they pick up they pick up the they pick up the policy and pay the pay the penalties and all that and then they just hope that I die within a certain time frame. It's like Vegas, they're gambling on when I live, when I die. But then I also had disability insurance that I paid for myself privately. you know, when you have stage four cancer you automatically get government disability, which I was close to retirement age anyway. but the best part about government disability, which I got immediately, when you get a handicapped plate

Yeah,

and two, you get in two years you're automatically enrolled in med Medicare. So so that'll be good for me because my insurance is outrageous. But it doesn't matter because just the surgery I did at Emory on Tuesday was $150,000. One surgery. So, you know, the I'm clobbering the insurance companies. I mean I paid these premiums my whole life. Now it's time for them to pay back and I'm fortunate that I have good insurance, good hospitals, good doctors and

Yeah, okay.

my ⁓

Yeah.

All those things that really are critical. Because you could imagine if you're having all these other issues and then suddenly you're getting these medical bills and or you're being turned away. I mean, first thing you do when you go to the hospital is you go to the business office and they make sure they're getting paid, you know. ⁓ so the bills can pile up. Even if you get the low premium it but you got a twenty percent copay, and next thing you know, you got a hundred thousand dollars in medical bills. I have a six thousand dollar deductible and that's it.

Thank

that.

Yeah, people can't survive on that.

Yeah,

and it's tough because it's expensive. Everything's expensive.

Well, I want to say you're a poet, number one. You are. It just kind of flows out of you. And I think that's another gift that you have

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

The gift

of Gab, I think it comes from being Irish. We're Storytellers at heart, you know, and I just like to keep smiling. ⁓ I've really learned to just and if I guess if there's any lesson to pull out of this is today's the only day we get, whether you like it or not. everybody talks about it, living in the moment. I heard someone say the other day that he don't have a five year plan. The guy's like, Where how the hell do know what I'm gonna be in five years? He says, I have a direction.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I'm pointing in the right direction. I'm I'm not worried about where I land as long as I'm pointing in the right direction and I'm doing the right thing. Sometimes you can't see the finish line. Iron Man's like that. But you know you're moving in the right direction. So you just keep moving forward and I would say the title of the book, Just Keep Trying, which is where I got the motto is I don't care what's going on in your life, you gotta get up, keep making an effort. You'll be surprised, even in your darkest moments, that the the the light is just a couple of steps away. But you gotta keep moving to get there. So

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Just whatever you're going through, get up, keep trying, go through it.

Well then I don't have to ask you what your plans are for after Kona because I know that there's always going to be something that you're going to be putting out in front of you.

I'll probably

move into I'm gonna keep promoting the book. I'm gonna keep trying to bring faith to the faithless and maybe do some motivational speaking. I have a real interest in helping our young men, which seem to be a lot of them seem to be kind of, you know, lost, so to speak. So they're looking for motivation, they're looking for guidance and I think I can help. So that's why I'm you know, I said I promised their life of service and I'm just gonna look to do that.

Good.

That's what I'm.

little while.

And and the more I look to do it, the more opportunities come my way. And I get more out of it than I'm giving. I I'm getting ten times back what I'm giving. It's keeping me alive. I really do believe that, you know, writing the book, promoting the book, meeting people like you, expanding my friendships, expanding my social circle and getting the feedback is telling me that I'm on the right path, I'm doing the right thing. And again, thankful to Cancer for the time and the opportunity to to be able to do these things.

at this point in my life which I'm really happy about.

So great, man.

to let's leave it there. And I can relate because I could never imagine what I'd get back from meeting people like you on what this podcast would become and what I get from it. So a thousand percent in agreement with you and it keeps you motivated, keeps you wanting to do more. And the life of service, I don't think there's anything that you can do that's

We were doing pretty good on Amazon

there. we were number one in Trathlon, number one in Cancer, number one in new releases. And I just gotta keep kinda pushing it out there the best I can and and you know, all you can do is all you can do. And Well, you can get to A Amazon. It's on Amazon and the the you just put in just keep trying. Trying is spelled T R I hyphen I N G and and I'll send you some links,

That's right. How can people access the book? can they?

My Instagram is stage four twenty twenty-five, the number four. Stage S-T-A-G-E number four two zero two five. I'll send you a couple of links you can share. but yeah, the the profits from the book. I've got an ebook, hardcover, softback, and the audio book should be coming up any any minute now. It's been they take a little time to get that up, but I've got all four versions and all the profit goes to the foundation until we reach that fundraising goal. I'm about a quarter of the way there, twenty-five thousand dollars. So

Yeah, I'll put.

Yeah.

A good ways to go, but I really feel like the kindness and generosity of your audience and many others will get us across that line. Three, four, five, eight dollars at a time.

Yeah, agreed, agreed. encourage my audience to definitely support this. Buy the book and really listen to a lot of the things you said and take them to heart today.

Thank you, buddy. Thank you. I really appreciate your time. Thank you for being so patient in getting me on too. ⁓

Whatever it took. Anything I can do moving forward too, please let me know. here.

Absolutely.

Yeah. I really appreciate the support. Thank you so much.

Yeah, and I look forward to finding out how you

See how this thing ends, right? So I said the

book left with a real cliffhanger is like is this guy gonna live? Is he gonna make it to Corona? Does he finish the So there may have to be a sequel, you know? ⁓ but we'll definitely do some follow up after the race for sure. I'd tell you my experiences and and see. I'd really I mean, obviously I I really need to finish this race because it seems like the cherry on the icing on the cake. ⁓ but regardless of how it ends, you know, I said it's in the pursuit. Happiness is in the pursuit, it's in your daily struggles.

Yeah.

For sure,

Yes.

That's right, man. We'll get back on when it's over so we can talk about it, okay? Yeah, all right. You have a wonderful day. All the best, I mean, I can't even, it's just...

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Yeah, to your girlfriend

too. I'm so glad she's she's handled that problem and hopefully that'll be just a a distant memory for her soon.

Thank you so much. Yeah, I hope so too. I really appreciate everything you've said today and the man you are. So thanks so much and all the best to Kelly. Have a great day.