AJ and Erika: In today's episode, we have the privilege of sharing two inspiring stories from friends who have been through tragic accidents, life-saving surgeries, miserable physical therapy, and long, slow recovery. When we first heard their stories, we were so inspired that we asked if they'd be willing to come on the podcast and help inspire all of us as well. Grab your Kleenex. These stories are incredible. ⁓ Hey there friends. Welcome to one more run the podcast. name is AJ. I'm Erica. And we are so glad you're here. We host this thing, but if you didn't know this, that we are not just co-hosts. We're married. Yes. So if it seems like our whatever chemistry is good, it's because it is good. It's been 25 years of Yes. Well, yeah. Longer if you count our dating, but yes. That's right. Yep. Just a heads up. If you're new here, if you've been here for multiple episodes, you probably already. Well, welcome to today's episode. Today we're going to be talking inspiration. Yes. Right. Before that, I wanted to wish all you moms out there happy Mother's Day. That's coming up this weekend. And we recognize that Mother's Day can be super sweet and amazing and all that. We also recognize it can be really hard. And so whatever your Mother's Day looks like this weekend, we hope that you are able to sit in it, enjoy it, ⁓ know, process whatever is going on and hopefully have an opportunity to Reflect or say thank you or be grateful, whatever it is. So happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, specifically my mom. Mom, if you listen to the podcast, I don't know if you do, but happy birthday. My mom definitely said happy birthday. I met happy Mother's Day, it was just her birthday. It was just her birthday as well. I got birthday and Mother's Day on the mic. Yes. ⁓ my goodness. And happy Mother's Day to my mom. Who does ListenWear podcast? She a hundred percent does. She does. Yes. So like as you were saying, the goal of the podcast today is just to inspire you. want you to walk away knowing that you can do hard things. Today, you're going to get to hear two conversations we got to have with some new friends. Don was hit by a car riding his bike back in 2018 and was told he would never be able to run or cycle again, possibly not even walk. We're going to hear his story as well as our friends, Will and Katie, who have been through a lot the last two years. A simple fall for Will turned into a spinal cord injury and 10 weeks in the hospital and therapy, learning to walk again. You're going to be so inspired by what both Don and Will have been able to do since then. Spoiler alert, it involves some medals. Yes, it does. went through both, you know, two people that don't know each other living in different parts of the country. Had traumatic things happen in their lives, right? And they both end up. crossing some finish lines. Yes. You know, which we cannot wait for you to hear that. Let's knock out the housekeeping stuff related to the podcast first. That way when we dive into those stories, we can just dive into those stories and sit in those. So Erica, we have a new Apple podcast review to read, right? All right. Can we do that? Yep. So today's review is from Deborah Kate. She says, hello agent Erica. I just want to send a quick shout out and thank you for the incredible podcast you put together around running Disney. Your episodes covering everything from registration strategies, training tips, hotels days, costumes, food, and what to expect to the expo were so informative and reassuring. I just ran Princess Weekend and I call it my Disney do-over because I ran Princess two years ago but did not fully understand the whole Disney running thing. Your podcast enlightened me and I ran this time with a whole new attitude and understanding. It was a beautiful experience and sad experience at the same time with Jeff Galloway's passing. I ran with my whole heart and him on my mind every race. Thank you for the time and care you put into every episode. It really makes a difference for runners like me preparing for the magic of run Disney lace up, believe, and run the magic. That's awesome. I love run Disney for a lot of what she said. And that is that people think that you go to run through a theme park and that's not really why we know you might sign up for that. We said that before. That might be why you signed up, but you, you find out real quick that it gets so much deeper than that. You're doing something hard. You're encouraging someone who's doing something hard. are being encouraged. Like we don't come back necessarily for the metals. know what I mean? As much as I love them, you come back for the community of it. So thank you for sharing that review that that meant a lot to us. And we're so glad that, ⁓ some of the silly things that we say on this podcast are some, some kind of help, ⁓ something else, ⁓ before we dive into our interview, Erica, that we, ⁓ want to talk about was kind of an announcement. Yes. Right. And so not, not like a personal announcement, it's a podcast announcement. ⁓ and so what I wanted to just take a couple of minutes to share with everybody is we're launching something we're calling the support crew. so this is going to be an opportunity where if you love the podcast and you want more stuff, right? Sometimes it's hard to get from Wednesday to Wednesday because you love it, right? Well, maybe I'm speaking for myself. It's hard for me. Sometimes I'm like, Okay. So I already listened to episode and I got to wait seven days. so we've heard that kind of feedback from you as well. So we're going to create more, right? The podcast that you're hearing is going to stay exactly the same. We're going to create more. We're going to use a platform called Patreon, which I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with. And the idea there is that it's, uh, you know, they call it crowdfunding or whatever, but the idea is that you will, if you want to, you can support the podcast and we will say thank you by giving you a bunch of extra content. so that's launching now, right? Like assuming I did all the button clicking on the website correctly, like it's live and you are totally welcome to join the support crew and you're totally welcome not to join the support crew. That's up to you. We have two goals here. The first is to get you extra stuff, right? Extra content, know, stuff that you can watch, not just listen to if you want. We're going to send you stuff in the mail, things like that. If you, if you Join the crew. That's what we're calling it, the crew. Then great. And the benefit to us is it helps us offset some of the costs of producing this thing. We love it. We absolutely love doing this. And we will absolutely cover the costs. You know what I mean? Because we love it that much, we know that it's helpful, right? But if we can provide more and you can help us with our hosting costs and the website has this cost, you know what I mean? The technology and we upgrade stuff, right? If you can help us with that, you can help us keep this thing going. for a long time. And so that's the goal of the, of the, the support crew. Uh, Erica, you want to talk about some of the things that we've decided and maybe we'll add more in the future. don't know, but what is the crew going to get? some of the things that the crew is going to get is we're going to have an after show. We're going to just have like some fun discussions sometimes with our guests, with each other, maybe talk about some things that we didn't get to get to on the show. Right. And I think off topic things, Because we usually keep this. We try to anyway, this ship going in the, in one direction on an episode, right? And even though we have like silly comments to make or whatever that the after show is going to be the, ⁓ I think the, if you'd like to hear us talk, which I'm not sure why you would, but if you do, if you'd like to just hear the random stories that have nothing to do with anything, We're putting them in the after show, right? Where we don't have to necessarily stay on topic. And I mean, I, I view that as like, we're kicking our shoes off, grabbing something to drink, just chatting. almost no notes. totally. That's the after show. else? Yes. Also you guys will have early access to some content. You'll get to help contribute to future episodes. Like I just said, we're going to be sending you special stickers that nobody else gets. That's right. There's only one way to get these things and that's being on the crew. That's right. Yeah. Some, some, ⁓ bid boards that will have our logo on them and just some other fun things that we'll send you in the mail. Yep. I think one of the reasons we call this the support crew is that you're supporting us. But the reason we call it the crew is because if you've ever been a part of a crew, then you know what a backstage access is or a green room is, And that's kind of what the after show is. Is we'll explain stuff about the podcast, how we do stuff, why we did whatever, in a like totally green room vibe. You know, where we just say it as it is. You know, we're not gonna, you we're pretty authentic on the show, the main show, but... Like this is the, if you have a question, you can ask it. Yeah. Crew members, you can ask it during the week. We'll answer it. Yep. You know? And so very much a like backstage pass, you know, kind of vibe. And so we also call it the crew because, ⁓ you know, if you've, know, a support crew on a race or whatever, they're the cheerleaders, right? They're what keeps You know, the runners going, know, and that's what you are for us. Yeah. If you've been on a theater crew, you know that you come in first and you leave last. Yep. And that comes with its benefits. You get to hang out backstage. So we're calling it the support crew because of that. One thing I did want to like make sure is super clear that is that this is not about money. No, this is about getting you some more stuff and us offsetting costs. If we can, we love doing this. We'll cover it. We've had like unexpected growth of the show. We've talked about that before on the podcast. We totally didn't expect so many people to listen. We thought like 15 of our friends might listen to it. And so what that meant was like we've had to like increase our hosting stuff. And so we just have these costs that come with doing the show. It's not a complaint. Don't hear that. We are happy to give you some thank you things in response to helping us. offset that stuff. So it's not a club. It's not exclusive access to us. It's nothing like that. You're not buying your way into anything other than if you want some extras, right? You some stuff with the logo on it and some amazing stickers that I'm not going to talk about just quite yet, but they're awesome. I was like, can I get one of those from my water bottle? As long as you're on the support crew. Sure. ⁓ and so like just know that it's not exclusive in terms of like being a club where like you get to like have direct access to our cell phone numbers or something like that. We don't think we're that important. No. Okay. This is I love the show and I'd love some more stuff. Yeah. It's not like anything's going to change. The podcast is going to stay the same. So if what we provide now is enough for you, that's perfect. If you want to support us a little bit more and get some extra perks, that's awesome too. Whatever works best for you. We're going to continue to encourage you no matter what. Yep. That's absolutely right. Nothing changes about the main episode. The only thing you're probably going to hear is us say, if you want to support the show, join the support crew and we will not be as long and drawn out as we are right now about it. Today's just like, all right, we got to, you know, flip the switch on this thing and turn it on. ⁓ so if you want to join the crew, we'd love to have you. If you don't want to join the crew, that's totally fine. ⁓ if you're interested in even just learning with more about it, it's on the website, aj and Erica.com. You can find that. ⁓ I think you can also go to Patreon and search for us. And that is where you find it. If you're interested in the crew. Awesome. We'd love to have you. All right. So let's dive into today's stories. First, we're going to chat with Don. Do you want to give us like the short little background on Don's story before we dive in? Yeah. He's going to tell us the story of what happened, but just know that the car that hit him while he was on his bike probably should have killed him. His chance of survival amazed the doctors. And what we love about his story is that he has taken the gift he was given and ran with it literally. Don, I want to welcome you to one more run the podcast. Thanks for being here to share your story today. Thanks. I'm glad to be here. Oh, it's so awesome. Take, take us back to 2018, right? was September 10th. What was that day supposed to look like when you went out for that ride? was a, a late summer or perfect Saturday, um, September Saturday morning plan was to go ride a century bike ride. When I was finished, we're, big college football fans here at my, at my house and go home and settling for a, you know, nice afternoon in the evening and college football and. You'll find out it was nothing to that. So basically I was, um, was in about mile 80 of the century bike ride. Um, for those of who don't know what a century bike ride is, think of a, uh, to a cyclist, a century bike ride is to a runner. What a marathon is. It's like the pinnacle of cycling. It's that a hundred mile ride for in a day. So, um, I was doing really well. So I looked down at my GPS and I'm figuring, Hey, I'm almost at mile 80. I'm averaging about 27 miles an hour. I'm doing real good. I got about maybe 45 minutes left. The next thing I remember was opening my eyes and I was being put in the back of an ambulance and a paramedic telling me, do not move. You are in a very serious accident. ⁓ my gosh. So, I mean, obviously they rushed you to the hospital. Like what, what, what do you, what do know? I don't remember anything in between those two events. Now my brother's a police officer in Pennsylvania. So he called down to the, ⁓ to the state trooper, the Delaware state trooper investigator. He was able to get the investigation notes, et cetera. So what happened was. The guy was on a lifetime suspended license, so he shouldn't have been driving. He was coming down on this back road. I was in between two cyclists, or two groups of cyclists. He was yelling at the cyclist, telling him to get out of his way. He's in a hurry. He said he saw me, but he thought he could beat me, so he sped up. And when he turned into the intersection, he hit me head on. When he hit me head on, he basically broke almost every bone in my left thigh and hip. broke the tibia below my knee completely out. had a softball size opening and then I went airborne over his car. I must've landed in the road with my hands out. Then my chin must've hit the road because my jaw broke in three places. Then the left side of my head hit the road so much that my entire side of my helmet was smashed. And then after that, there was an announcement on a... The county emergency radio that there was a cyclist hit with a possible fatality. My brother told me, we looked at the photo. It looked like you see in a crime scene on a TV show. thought I was dead. And then they rushed me to a community hospital. ⁓ my gosh. So what was your, I mean, that's terrifying. What was your hospital experience? Like how, you know, how long were you there? Like, like did you do surgery? Like, like what, what was the hospital like? So they took me to a community hospital. They realized how bad I was and they couldn't treat me. So what they were going to do is they were going to airlift me to the only trauma center in Delaware, which is two hours north. But unfortunately a storm was coming and so they couldn't airlift me. So they, they transferred me by ambulance. I had a police escort all the way up to two hours north. I got into the ER. They basically scanned my brain to make sure there was no brain damage because of the impact of my helmet and et cetera. And thank God I was wearing a helmet. ⁓ what they did is they reset my bottom leg and then he put me into six hour surgery. So they had to go in, they had to clean out all the shattered bone pretty much. And then they, you know, they basically rebuilt my leg with metal rods. ⁓ my gosh. And so my understanding, ⁓ when you were talking before is that you, you're coming out of this whole thing and you're not going to run again, right? Like, like. Or walk or bike or whatever. Like what were you told? Right. And how did you react to that? So the surgeon came in and he told me, he's like, look, you're extremely lucky to be alive. Like if 99.9 % of the people that this would have happened to would not have survived. What I also was told that the car was a low to the ground car. If it was an average car, I wouldn't have survived. He said, look, if you're a runner, you will never run again. you play any kind of high impact or any impact sports like basketball, jumping, you can't do that. And he goes, you need to prepare yourself that you may not walk normally again. And at the time I... I didn't really comprehend what was happening. Cause I was in the hospital, you know, if you've ever been in hospital, there's a lot of things going on. And I didn't really fully grasp the gravity of what was happening, but it was just like, I don't know what's happening here. I don't believe this is happening. My first reaction was, oh, I'll be fine. In a couple of weeks, I'll be back to that. I actually called my boss and said, yeah, I was in a car accident, but I'll be back to work next week. So I didn't really fully understand the gravity until I was released. Yeah. So you were released and you've got a long recovery ahead, right? Like, can you talk about that, that initial recovery for a few weeks? Sure. So, ⁓ now taking, you know, bright side, he's the surgeon told me because of my physical fitness, because my physical level at the time, my body was able to handle the trauma. So he said, I'm going to have you be laid off for six weeks. After six weeks, I want you to start to put pressure on your foot and then begin to the long rehab. So I was going through physical therapy and rehab, but I was basically because my jaw was wired shut and I couldn't turn my body to left or right because of the pressure, I was confined to a recliner for six weeks. Now, thank God I lost my front tooth and God bless my wife and God bless the Ninja Blender because she came up with these incredible meals that I was able to feed through a straw for six weeks. Oh my gosh. How were you, how'd you deal with that emotionally? Right? Like you, mean, you, you were riding your bike one day for a century ride and now you're sitting in a chair, you know, with, you know, taking in, I mean, I'm, I'm glad you had the Ninja blender, but I mean, this is not, it's probably not good. Right? Like how are you dealing with that emotionally? So I probably went through every phase of grief. You know, first it was, I didn't really comprehend. I don't, I didn't think it was real. I thought a couple, like it's like when you pull your hamstring. I'll let it rest and then I'll be back and I'll be back to normal activity. And then eventually it was anger. You know, how dare you hit me? How dare you do this? And then, you know, it got into depression. Like, what am I going to do? This is my life. I, I can't do anything at this. And then I finally hit a crossroad of I can either say, this is the final chapter has been written. This is how my life's going to be, or I can take this and I can run with it and I can. make something good out of this bad situation. Yeah. When we were talking in email, you mentioned to us that you were reading stories about people who made incredible recoveries. What was it about those stories that made you do that as well? Well, you're confined to a recliner for six weeks. You have a lot of time. I decided, okay, I want to do something. I need to continue. My final chapter was not written. So I went out, I started finding stories about people who were in the same situation as me or maybe even worse than me that were able to overcome that and then do something incredible. Somebody had more trauma issues that were worse to me and actually was able to recover in a couple years and run the New York City Marathon. And my thought was, if they can do it, I can get it and I can get back to walking. So my original goal was I want to walk normal. So that was where these stories kind of helped me to get to that right mindset, know, think about when you're training and you're running for long planning for long distances to get in that right mindset to help you achieve that plan. How'd you balance that though? Like very inspiring you seeing other stories, right? But the doctors, the professionals, right? The medical professionals have kind of put like a ceiling, right? Like a, like a lid on, you don't expect this, you know, like how'd you respond to that? You know, first I, you know, I listened to all their feedback and, but You know, when I went to physical therapy, I was told, you know, I was on the other end in the spectrum. It's like, they said that most people come in, don't do the things. was treating this as I was training for a big event. It's like, let's go, let's get this going. Let me get and do the things to get back to where I needed to be. And that first goal was to walk. And then, you know, when I had my first follow-up in November with the physician, he was saying, you're making great progress and I see what you're doing. This is good. Let's continue with it. And he kind of increased the ceiling a little bit for me at that point. ⁓ well, that's good. That's awesome. So six months after your accident, you had your first treadmill run. How did that go? Tell us about that. Yeah, absolutely. So, so in January of 19, my physician cleared me for non non-contact or non-impact activities. Think of a stationary bike, elliptical machine, et cetera. So I got on that. We had a gym at work. Two minutes I was done. thought my heart was going to rip out because I haven't moved in four months. I thought every muscle fiber on both my legs were going to tear because of just getting back to that. But between January and March, I was able to build up to about 45 minutes at a good rate, you know, where you're sweating, you get a good workout. And my next follow up was coming up in a few days. And right next to the elliptical was a treadmill. And I'm looking at it I'm like, never going to run again. I'm like, okay, let's see this. Got on it. and I ran a 10th of a mile. Now, I'm gonna use the word ran very loosely. There was a turtle next to me walking. He probably went faster than me. But it was that mindset and was the mental capability of me physically making that motion of running. I did it again, went to see my orthopedic surgeon. He does the scans, comes in, he's like, what are you doing? And I told him everything. He goes, this is unbelievable. You are so far ahead where I ever thought you would be. I know I told you, would never run again, but I'm going to let you do light jogging. He goes, listen, do not go out and go too heavy, go too much. But I want you to go look at something called the run, walk, run method and look up a name, Jeff Galloway. So I go home and I'm like, Jeff Galloway, run, walk, run. He goes, don't, it's run, walk is good. I, cause he runs, he runs marathons. He goes, I use it, don't get caught up in it. So I go back and I search on it. It takes me to the run Disney training plan for whatever marathon. I'm like, Oh, Disney has races. I never knew about that. Kind of put it in the back of my head and I bought Jeff's book and I just went out and started, you know, 32nd five minute walk, very slow, but I was slowly building up and building up and using the mentality of how I would train for my big cycling rides. I was now using the run, walk, run method to begin to get back to running. That's awesome. I love the. Um, hold my beer attitude, you know, that you're like, I could, you know, I'm to on the treadmill. You know what I mean? And it sounds like you didn't overdo it at first, which is, which is smart. I love that. That's awesome. Um, can you talk about like the discipline and the focus that it, that it probably took to, to do that, right? To introduce, you know, walking only, you know, very lightly jogging the run, walk is a new thing, whatever. Can you talk about just like the discipline, right? It takes to hold back. Sure, now it was hard for me because for those who know me, I operate at two speeds. It's either going at zero or a hundred. So it's like, let's go that's good. I'm married to one of those, yeah. So I had to really dial it back and I really need to accept, look, it's a long journey. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You're going to have good days, you're going to have bad days. But if you trust the process, if you trust the plan, you'll see those improvements. So that discipline, as I went from a 10th of a mile to a quarter mile, to a half mile, I'm starting to see the progress and I'm starting to get those wins that were motivating me to continue to go. And then what I wanted to do at that now, this is my next goal was run around a 5k. I'm going to run a 5k. So in the end of May, there was a local brewery that had a 5k race and I went out and I did that and I crossed that finish line. It was incredible feel. I'm like, what else can I do? So was that kind of discipline of like trusting the and trusting the plan and letting the time dictate how you're going to achieve that. Yeah. You have been through a lot. What would you say was the hardest part of your recovery? To go back to trusting the process. Yeah. Because again, you know, I, to me it's like, I don't know if you guys do this, but I get injured. I want to be fixed the next day. Yeah. What do mean? What do you mean? gotta sit down. You know what? What do mean? My calf hurts. I gotta wait two weeks. Right. It was... Okay, I'm ready to go. Let's go. Let's go do this. So it was really, you know, dialing back my personality, taking the advice of other people that numb helped me, but also making sure that I'm sticking with the plan. Yeah. Yeah. That's for all of us. Um, uh, so what's something about your recovery story that you don't usually get to talk about, Like what, what does someone never really ask about? So, you know, one of the hardest things, especially in the beginning of the first few months was, you know, I, family friends were there. had some. but it was really around how you feeling physically. The mental part of it was really something I never talked about. And I'm doing a better job now, but when I'm in those days or evenings where I was by myself and I'm running through what happened, which I shouldn't have done like the what ifs, like what if I didn't survive? How would my family survive or my wife or et cetera? So that was just really something I should have done more of in the beginning, the physical and the mental, your mental. capabilities are also important. That was probably the one thing that I really never really talk a lot about. What advice would you give to someone then based off that? now you're talking about the mental side of it, whatever. Is there any advice you would give to someone who's in the kind of the darker early days? Yeah, I just think, you know, lean on and trust the people that care about you because people do care about, know, your friends, your family, they're there. Don't feel that you can't open up, you you could talk about the physical, but don't feel like you can't open up about the mental issues that you're dealing with. I mean, this was a major trauma. mean, I was told by many medical professionals, there was somebody upstairs watching over you. You should not have survived this. And when you hear that, you're like, could have, mean, in a minute, in an inch, any direction, or if that car was higher, a normal car. I want to be here today. So, and that does play into you at times when you go into those spaces, just rely on the people around you because they will be there for you. Has your perspective then changed, right? Like you were, uh, I'm going to say spared. don't feel like that's the right word, but like you're here for a reason. It sounds like, is that like, what's your perspective now? Oh, absolutely. So I, I am now more in the moment in, in the learning to be present. In the past, I would always worry about things that maybe I had no control over, things that I just couldn't really control. Now it's more of, I wanna spend the time with my family, with my friends, with the loved ones, and I wanna be present in that day because you never know if tomorrow's gonna come. So I don't wanna put off to tomorrow something I could do today. So this whole thing really made me become more centered and identify what's important to me. and what's not really important to me. I love that. That's so good. Don, can we talk Princess 2020? We love Princess Weekend. How was that RENDez-Ni experience? ⁓ absolutely. So at my one year physical, my one year checkup with my orthopedic surgeon, that Saturday, which was the day before the anniversary of the accident, I went out and ran 10 miles. And I go in and I see the orthopedic surgeon, he does the scans and he comes back and he's like... What are you doing? Tell me. And he, the guy was, you know, and he's like, he goes, this is unbelievable. You are an example of how exercise can help in a traumatic situation. He's actually using my information for a book or a study he's doing. And he goes, he goes, I'm going to release you. You have no restrictions. I see that you're running. You can continue to run. I want to run a marathon. but you have no restrictions. The only thing that he said that could happen to me is they don't know how much blood I lost. I may have to deal with arthritis at some point, but you know what? I'm playing on house money. I'm here today. I don't care. So I drive home, my wife's not home yet. And I'm like, I'm running a half marathon. And I'm running, and then I, I'm running at Disney. Remember? Cause I learned that Disney had razors. So I didn't know too much about run Disney at the time. So I log on and I look at wine and dine and like, it's everything sold out. I'm like, ⁓ it's sold out. Okay. Now I'm on an e-pressure and you use live on it and there are spaces, right? I go to marathon weekend and there's nothing there. So I go to princess and the five and a half are open. Now it took a second. like, you know, I'm, I'm a guy in my fifties. Do I want to run princess? You know what? I don't care. Sign up for princess, sign up for the five K for the wife and I. Now I learned that I must've been at the right time because those spots, you know, how the spots open up, I think you had a guest from team run this, I think he, you they alert. So I must've hit that at the right time. Cause I didn't realize at the time that that should not have happened. you were meant to be there. awesome. these things sell out in 40 minutes. But anyway, so I go down, I tell my wife, gave her the great news, the outcome that I'm released. And I said, yeah, and we're going to Disney at the end of February and you and I run into Princess 5k and I'm running a half. She's like, you're running what? And I'm like, yeah, we're going down. So. You know, the 5K, I mean, it just blew my mind, just the whole thing. And this was the first time I've ever done a sporting event with my wife and to go through the 5K and cross that finish line and hand in hand, the emotion was coming, I was starting to tear up. And then, um, Princess Sunday. Now that was back then you had to walk out to the highway where that's where the corrals used to be. So you're aware of it. And this at the starting line and then I'm hearing other people's stories and that's why I wonder if he'll love run Disney. And I walk up to that start line and I'm like, I'm about to do this. I'm going to go run a half marathon. And then I go and I remember every inch of that run. mean, I remember the highway and the Monroe going by me. I remember going through the the Magic Kingdom toll booth and hitting, taking transportation and seeing the crowd there and heading up the contemporary. make, and I make that left to where the bus terminal is. And I can see Magic Kingdom and then all, everything has started to hit me. I'm starting to tear up. I'm like, I'm alive and I'm doing this. And I go through that tunnel and that avalanche of sound of people just hit me. And I'm like tearing up. can see my wife on Main Street and I stop. And I'm just running up Main Street, this 50 some year old guy crying tears of joy. I ran through magic, loved it. Came out of that castle and how you can, you're elevated and you can see everything. I just loved everything. And then I'm, you know, you go back to think the Epcot and I could hear we are the champions and I, know, the choir. I'm like, this is unbelievable. And I hit that shoot and they said my name and I'm just bawling. I'm like, I just ran a half marathon and I'm like, sign me back. and then COVID hit, but it was, it's, that's my favorite. That's my non-negotiable favorite race weekend. I love it. So good. So good. How about that special? So I see Marathon Ears sitting behind you. So I gotta know what other things you've gotten to, because I'm assuming you didn't buy those Marathon Ears on eBay. I'm assuming you earned them. No, no, no. So I got, you know, I got the run Disney bug and I'm like, sign me up and I wanted to do star wars and then you got canceled. So when this announced, you know, the return to the magic or however that campaign was, they were, they were bringing in back in person run races, starting with the 22 marathon. I'm like, and I've been running and I've been running, you know, marathon, half marathon paces or maybe 14, 15 miles. like, you know what? I'm running a marathon. Yeah. I mean, why not? mean, so I signed up for that and it was the most incredible, fulfilling, difficult, painful, hard, let me do it again thing I've ever done in my life. Like I remember coming out of animal and you make that right turn to go down towards Blizzard Beach. And I'm like, I'm cramping up and my mind is telling me, what are you doing? You shouldn't be doing this. And I'm fighting through it. then, know, Blizzard Beach, I'm like, okay, really? You got to do Blizzard Beach. And then I get past that and I finally got past that wall and I... finished the marathon the same way I finished Princess. And then I'm sitting at the airport going home and I see these four ladies wearing a Dopey challenge shirt. And I go, what is that? And they're like, they need to tell me. And I look at my wife and I go, yeah. And then I went, did Dopey next year. I haven't looked back. The run Disney gods had been in my favor. I'd been able to do every weekend. I've done two perfect seasons and I've done one coast to coast. So. Nice. Wow. That is amazing. That's incredible. Congratulations. Like, ⁓ we're inspired that you didn't quit. You know what I mean? You told the doctor to hold your beer for a second. You know what I mean? While you, while you, ⁓ recovered faster and proved, you know, proved that you can do it, like all the things. then you committed to the hard things, you know, I mean, a marathon is not easy in the slightest for someone who hasn't been through a traumatic injury. And so we're, we're super, ⁓ inspired by your story. for somebody who might be facing their own version of impossible, right? Like they're sitting, you know, whatever it is, mental, emotional, physical, whatever it is, this seems impossible to get past. What's something that you've learned that you would say to that person to encourage them? First, if you have a medical issue, make sure you talk to your physicians, your healthcare professionals. But, you know, I've learned our bodies are engineered to do incredible things. It's just that you have to get into that right mindset. I tell a lot of people when I talk about my story is run your race and get out of your head. Do not worry about what other people think. If you're slow, who cares? If you're walking, who cares? Cause a lot of people come to me and say, I can't do it. I'm not a runner. like, what is a runner? Well, they're thin and no, no runners are all shapes and sizes. Believe in yourself, get a plan and work towards it, but play the long game. You're going to have, it's not going to be a linear. you know, progression. You're gonna have peaks and valleys. You're gonna have days where you'll think you're gonna do a great run and you're just not gonna have it. Don't let one run or one event dictate your outcome. Just continue and trust the process and just rely on people. know, there's a lot of people that were there to help me get through this and it motivated me to get to that next level and that next step. Dawn, looking back, this terrible accident clearly had a significant impact on your life. How did all of this change who you are today? Well, I think it made me a better person. I think it helped with my family, my friends, sure they're the people that are important to me and spending time with them. And the reason that I do go to these Disney races is that I get to run the 5K with my wife. That's the highlight of every week. And I get to experience that event and that picture that I have in my head with her every three or four times a year. I get to spend time with friends. get to meet new friends at Disney. You think you guys have mentioned it's the community, it's the people there. you know, I get to hear Riley out there, what's your why? And I hear other stories of other people. And it just, makes me feel good that, you know, there's a lot of positivity going on and Run Disney brings the positivity. And I think that's where it really may meet is just to be more present and more positive and have a more better outlook. know, things are going to happen. You have no control over what's going to happen. It's how you can move forward from those things that really dictate how you're going to be. Yeah. I love that. It's so inspiring. And we're so grateful that you're willing to share your story and just give us some of those insights, right? Whether it's the first time we're hearing it or a reminder, like we really appreciate you sharing. We have to ask you a question and I already know the I know the answer. So I don't even know if I need to ask the question or if I should just look at you, but I'm going to. pose it for someone who's new to the podcast. ask everybody who's run down main street. you, you know, if you come on the podcast, we asked this question, would you rather for a Disney half, would you rather run down a main street USA or get a finisher metal for that half? Now I'm going to, I'm going to pose a, I'm a pitch my case here. I'm sure that metal from that first princess means a lot to you, right? Like, I'm sure you look back on it, right? I hear you see me trying to justify my side here. Okay. Don, Don, would you rather have a finisher medal or run down main street? What's your choice? If you could only have one. So, so lucky. mean, they're behind me. There's run dizzy metals. There, there are something else, but princess was my first race. was my return to living. Main street. It was probably the single half mile of running I've ever done. get to see my wife there. I, it is the crowd. I've done that 10 times and I cry every time. so it's mainstream for me. ⁓ Yep. I don't blame you in the slightest. In your scenario that absolutely counts. All right. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. Don we'll catch you. hope to see you. We'll be at marathon weekend. You're going to be at marathon weekend. I'll be there. We want to, want to, we're doing dopey. So perfect. are not, but we will see you on marathon day. We'd love to meet you in person. Thanks so much for being on the pod. I appreciate it. Thanks guys. Awesome. What an amazing story. And as if that wasn't inspiring enough, wait till you hear Will and Katie's story. It's so good. They're a younger couple with two little boys and bottom line is they had a fluke accident, right? Memorial day. mean, one of those things that kind of could happen to anybody. You know what I mean? And, and it wasn't even like, ⁓ like a car accident, right? Like it was literally like, you're going to hear a story. Will faints, hits his head and just. whatever medically hit it the wrong way. And so you're to hear that story now, the doctors at the shepherd center in Atlanta, which if you don't know, like that's like the specialists, right? Like they, they know their stuff. They're the experts. ⁓ they basically told him that he'd probably never walk again. Yeah. And so, ⁓ he had other plans though. He sure did. And so you're to hear that story. Right. Will and Katie, are so excited for you to be here on the podcast to share your story. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you guys. We're excited to share it with you all. Oh, good. Awesome. Can you start us off by telling us a little bit about you, right? Like just kind of like, love. You don't have to tell us the story yet. We'll get to that. But can you tell us who you are? Right? Like, where are you from? Do you have kids? Like anything you're willing to share? Yeah, we live in Chattanooga, Tennessee and grew up just across the state line in Georgia. And we're high school sweethearts. So we met in high school and then we'll have been married 10 years this fall. Congratulations. And then we have two boys and one on the way and we don't know what we are having. Our third is a surprise. all the way down to the last minute. Like that's the plan. Yeah, that's the plan. It's very exciting. Well, thank you guys for being on the podcast. You've got an incredible story. We're so excited to dig in and thank you for sharing it. Uh, are you guys willing to talk about Memorial day, 2024? My understanding is that's when, you know, things kind of change for you. That was the day that year of your accident, Will and your lives just upended, right? Um, what, what do you guys remember from that day? What are you willing to share? I remember all of it. I was helping my brother-in-law sister-in-law move. Uh, they had just moved to Chattanooga. They just moved from Denver, moved across the country, come back home. And so we had just pulled the dryer out of the back of the truck. I was hooking it up. ⁓ and then, you know, done me, I was squatting instead of, you know, kneeling down or sitting down. And so I hadn't eaten that morning and I stood up and I got lightheaded. Like I had cut my finger on the, on the dryer vent. It got stood up and I was lightheaded and I was like, ⁓ man. And so just went to sit on a tailgate in my truck. And next thing I know, I woke up with my head bouncing off concrete. first time I've ever passed out my life. And I just fell straight on top of my head. What happened was the fracture C5, C6 vertebrae in my neck, ⁓ it compressed the crap out of my spinal cord. There's super, super swelling and it literally cut the power off to my body instantly. So I was instantly paralyzed, laying in my sister's high boy. Katie, do you remember what went through your mind in those first few hours? For me, it was... Like there, our family just kind of took over for us. to not have to, we didn't have to think about our kids when you, our kids were taken care of with my sister. ⁓ and truly just leaving everything up to the medical providers. Cause there's nothing else we could do. We were blessed when the jump, ⁓ I remember waking up out of surgery and going into ICU and I hadn't talked about this one yet, but. ⁓ I grew up with the nurse that took me upstairs. ⁓ So like being able to hear her voice nurse Joe was incredible. She was, she was there from the job. She was awesome. but you spent a long time in the hospital, right? Like we're like right now, the story sounds like you had this accident and you're in the hospital, but like you spent a long time in multiple facilities, right? Yeah. I spent, ⁓ in three different hospitals. I guess you count four if you count physical therapy here at home. Yeah. Then in and out of four hospitals. I see you for eight days and then, ⁓ we transferred to Shepherd Center in Atlanta. Yeah. And then from there to a spinal cord injury unit, VA facility in Augusta, Georgia. Right. And this takes, this is weeks, right? Like, like that you're spending at each one of these? Yeah. ⁓ about 10 weeks at It was 10 weeks total. ⁓ my gosh. accident to the day he got to come home. Wow. Right. So for people who aren't from the like Chattanooga, Atlanta, Augusta, like they don't know how far those are. Like Atlanta, downtown Atlanta is what? Two and a half, three hours from Chattanooga. Right. And Augusta is another two, two and a half hours from there. Right. Yeah. It, it, when I have to go to the VA in Augusta, it's a, it's a five hour drive from Chattanooga. Katie, 10 weeks is a long time to be away from home, especially with two little ones. But being by Will's side every day was also a priority. How did you guys handle all of that? Family. ⁓ Realizing that we had to ask people for help. But also my work was huge. They instantly were like, go, we will handle things here. You take as long as you need. so that was super helpful. Will had just started a new job and had no disability insurance because he was 30 day waiting period. Oh gosh. So at some point during that first week, someone took lunch and convinced me to start a GoFundMe. Okay. And that fund actually supported us those 10 weeks, not having any income for Will. Wow. Oh man. Because we are insurance people. Like we have all the coverage, we do all the things. were just, he had been at that new job for 17 days. Yeah. You were in transition and the thing happened at the wrong time. ⁓ my gosh. What was the hardest part of all of that? Right? So you got 10 weeks, you know, obviously like not having the assurance was probably stressful as mess, you know, but like, what was the hardest thing that you had to deal with during this time? It was definitely BLA from our kids. Especially our oldest, he turned four during this 10 week period. That was the hardest part realizing that We were going to have to delay some of the things that we had planned for our family. Yeah. It was up and down constantly. ⁓ for the first few weeks, like the only thing in my brain was just keep doing your physical therapy. Like just keep doing what you're doing, keep doing what you're doing. And everybody's spinal cord injuries healed differently. ⁓ some of our doctors said you can do as much. physical therapy as you could possibly do, but if it's not going to heal right, you're still not going to get your movement back. And so I was just, I was doing everything that my therapist for having me do. And that's, really all I was concentrating on. It was so hard. Cause like I was an athletic dad, you know, I coached D ball. I would throw football. I could do flips into the pool like, and I instantly turned into a clumsy baby deer. ⁓ It was a huge mental battle. You guys went through this whole thing together. Where did that commitment come from? We don't know anything different. Yeah, totally. High school sweethearts, we survived college, we survived the military, we survived $11 an hour living in our first apartment. Like we've been through it. Just how we've always been together. So. That's awesome. We've told people that it's the best and worst thing that's ever happened to us. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. When you say it's the best thing that ever happened to you, any other like explanation behind that, like, cause that seems crazy to me that you would still be dealing with nerve pain and all this and the doctors are telling you whatever and you classify it as possibly one of the best things that ever happened to you. It really shuts out like all of the little things that you used to think that mattered and they just don't. It really. brought to the forefront, like what truly mattered. There is a circle of people that clapped loud enough for us that we didn't hear anybody else. Yeah. Wow. We got closer. She's been my best friend for 15 years. Yeah. And I don't ever want to it again. I promise you that. Yeah, for sure. ⁓ I would not want to do anything in life without her. Awesome. All right. I'm done. I'm done asking why, but why, but why, but why? I'm I'm done. I'm done. Go ahead, Erica. Will, can you tell us about your go one more philosophy during physical therapy? so go one more came from BPN. It's a performance supplement company, Bare Performance Nutrition, but we have followed Nick and his team for years and that's Nick's thing is to just go one more. And so I was in ICU. There was something about just do them one more. mean, whether it was just stretching or moving my feet. ⁓ and that just carried over to all of my recovery through OT, through PT to keep going, to keep doing one more. I've got two little boys that I couldn't let this slow me down. So I wanted to make sure on my side that I did everything that I could possibly do to get as far in recovery as I could possibly go. Yeah. We love that. ⁓ obviously the name of our podcast is one more run, right? And Erica kind of came up with that because she, you know, literally sometimes she just needs to do one more run, like just one more run segment or one more mile, like just one more thing. And there might be another one more after that. And then another one after that, but like breaking it down into small bites. Like what's your advice for somebody, you know, where that one more seems impossible, right? Like I cannot, you know, what, what, what advice would you give? Just focus on the next thing. just to go one day at a time, break stuff down, celebrate the small things and embrace your progress. That's what I would do. Perfect. Great. You guys, let's talk about the 2024 Peachtree Road Race. What's the story with the peach tree? So Shepherd Center is on Peachtree Road in Atlanta. we were there, Peachtree is on the 4th of July every year. had, I mean, living like right on the Tennessee Georgia line, we had heard at the Peachtree before, but never been or gone or anything. had known some friends that have done it, but it is huge. It's the chamber. They sponsor the adaptive brake, the wheelchair races. ⁓ So, a lot of those competitors have gone through Sheppard as well. And so, you know, we got up at six o'clock in the morning and we went down to the sidewalk. ⁓ I was in a power chair at the time, but we went down to the sidewalk and we sat and we watched all of these crazy people running in the middle of Atlanta. the fourth of July. The hottest day of the year. That's right. Yes. Yeah. I was just sitting there and at one point, one of my therapy assistants, she ran by and she has been a blessing. ⁓ I told her, said, I'm going to do this. I don't know when I don't know how, but I'm going to do this. That's kind of where it all started. Yeah. So you don't know when and you don't know how, but the wind ended up happening pretty soon. Yeah. Like, tell us, tell us your peach tree experience. I'd happened to year later. Awesome. Awesome. He did it in 2025. We, did not run, but we walked. I had visited shepherd a couple of since not stopped in there on the way to VA, but seeing some of the nurses and the therapist standing out. that helped and like seeing the joy on their face, knowing that they poured so much of themselves into somebody that just keeps going and going and appreciates it being able to stop and see them. then the same therapy assistant, we met up with her. Yeah, it was, it was an awesome day. There were lots of tears as we passed Shepherd. Just sure. But also instantly at the end of the race, we were like, we would do this again. Yeah. Awesome. You know what I love about running and we talk around Disney a lot, but we ran that race. This is what I love is that 60,000 people in Atlanta ran that race in, 2025. And at some point or whatever, we may have been feet from each other and not known it. You know what I mean? your story is different than our story. You're overcoming something unbelievable, right? Then we're out there doing our hard thing and 59,999 of the people are the same thing. You know what mean? They're overcoming something and it's just like, I love the community. of run walkers, walkers, runners, whatever it is. I love that you did 6.2 miles, Will. Like that's amazing that you walked right past where you got your therapies and they saved your life. You know, like I think it's so cool. So congratulations y'all. I that's awesome. Thank you. It was incredible. We're actually kind of sad that we can't do it this year, which we never would have thought. We're going to be a little busy in July. Yeah. Just a smidge maybe. Just a smidge. not on the books for this year, but maybe next year. Yeah. Well, if it helps, we'll send you a picture of us dying, in 101 degrees, you know, with 99 % humidity. And you'll immediately be like, oh, no, no, we're good. We're good. Oh my gosh. We will, we will be cheering you on from here. Yeah. From the air conditioning. Oh man. I know you just said this, but I can't even imagine like, walking past the hospital. When you were just talking about it, I was getting very emotional. Like that must've been such a crazy, surreal feeling. We've been back to the hospital. We, our kids were preemies. We've been back to the hospital where they were born, you know, and the nurses that took care of them. And that's, that's an emotional experience. Anytime I go by that hospital, I can't even imagine the journey you've been through and to be walking past it in a race. Holy cow. We're just a year before you were on the side. Yeah. It was instant tears for me. Yeah. The most magical thing was his nurses screaming, I took care of him and like showing the other patients that were currently sitting there on the sidewalk in their chairs. Like look what he's done. You can do too. how much like how proud they were. That's awesome. Yeah. I can't ask this question. I'll ask Erica's next question. What was the finish line like? What was that? What was that moment? Like you cross the finish line. There was so many emotions going through me that I just wanted to sit down so that I could take it in. That medal was super heavy too, by the way. It's small but heavy, right? It's kind of weird, huh? Yeah. It was just like triumph. Awesome. And just kind of like a happy moment. It felt very redeeming after the year we had had. I love it. Um, well, you're coming up on two year anniversary, right? If the accident Memorial day is, you know, a couple of weeks away, what, what can you tell us? Like, what are you able to do now? And I know that you still said you still have some nerve pain and stuff like that. Like if you had to say, you know, from being a, you know, athletic dad and whatever, like these are the things that I, you know, I'm able to do again. Right. And these are the things I'm still working on like two years later. Where are you right now? Still working on endurance, uh, working on flexibility, uh, building strength back. I don't know how to describe it, but like it instantly cut this shrink off to my body. So I'm working on building that back. But at the same time, I'm coaching two baseball teams. I'm doing the dad thing again. doing the spin thing again. Working full time. Working full time. Probably 80 % of what I used to be. That's awesome. That's great. You mentioned your boys. You guys said they're young. What do you want them to take away from this chapter of your family story when they're older? I think it's a couple of things. The one, like how powerful family can be and how we can support each other, but also that they can do hard things. That's awesome. What's next for y'all? ⁓ new baby on the way, obviously, right. And you're going to be busy in July. ⁓ anything else worth celebrating or highlighting or commenting on? New baby. We're going to be married for 10 years this fall. We're going get married. are signed up to do the Run Disney virtual races to keep us moving. That's awesome. I'm going to do another 10K in the fall. We're going back to Disney in January and to celebrate our soon to be middle child's fourth birthday. I'm going to try to convince Will to hop on that team, Run Disney. ⁓ We're going to talk Run Disney here in a second. Like don't think we forgot. we, you know, you've got Run Disney or we're saving it for the end. ⁓ yeah, we need to talk Will into it for sure. For sure. Absolutely. think he'd love it. ⁓ yeah, you would. Like if you enjoyed the peach tree at all, Run Disney is going to blow your mind. Yeah. Y'all for someone out there right now who might be dealing with something life altering, like what you have gone through, what wisdom would you share with them? Celebrate the little things. Embrace your progress. Keep doing what you can do. ⁓ find a community that's gonna, that's gonna hang with you and gonna push you, also gonna care for you. Awesome. Thank you for that. That's super awesome. ⁓ we've really enjoyed getting to hear your story, Erica. Do you have any other questions? Cause I do have run Disney questions, but do have any other questions about their story that you want to know? Okay. ⁓ So we can't wrap this thing up without talking to run Disney and Katie, I'm, point, I'm looking right at you, right? Cause you ran princess this year. ⁓ tell us about that experience, the princess that we just had. Right? So tell us about that. Yeah. So Princess 2026. So shortly before Will's accident, I had started running the, you know, the Princess 2025 was going to land on my 30th birthday. And so I was like, this is the perfect, this is it. This is my year. Um, it was not my year. signed up to Chorus for while Will was in the hospital. And so I decided to push it out. But by June, 2025, when signups came back around, we were in a very different place. You know, why not go now? See if I wait longer, I'm not going to do it. And so, but also the privilege to move and run my body just meant more to me then. That I never had before. Yeah. So I, my best friend and I signed up, we did all three races. Obviously when I signed up, I did not think I was going to be 18 weeks. Right. We did it. I took Will's motto with me and Will and the boys were like the inspiration for getting me through those three races. I actually wore a bib on my back for the half that said, run because he learned to walk again. I think I saw you on the course wearing that. Really? Yes. I was dressed for it. I totally think I did because I'm very aware of things like that. I'm like 99.9 % sure I saw you on the course. That's awesome. Keep going. Sorry. Oh, so I got to tell people his story and let me tell you at mile 10, um, with the balloon ladies, not far behind me. Will is what got me through and what continues. I'm like, just, you've gone 10 miles. You can make it the last for me. It will come around the lock again. You can finish a half marathon. Yes. ⁓ man, that's so good. That is so good. Katie, what do you love about the Rendezvous experience? It's just all encompassing and magical. The community, there's so many different levels and abilities and stories and everyone is so encouraging. But I have no problem finding people on the course to talk to and to encourage and to encourage me when I was questioning if I was going to be able to finish or not. And so that uplifting community plus the costumes and the glitter, all the fun things that go along with it. yeah. Yeah. We love everything you just described for sure. Absolutely. ⁓ awesome. Well, since you've done the princess half marathon, that means you've run down main street and, I'm pretty sure you've listened to our podcast. So we ask a very important question and I'm, I'm fingers across, but I'm, I'm actually. Not hopeful. think she's going to be on your side of this, this thing, but I don't know. You could surprise me. You, you know, we'll see. So the question is, would you rather on a Disney half marathon, if you had to choose, would you rather run down main street or have a finisher medal, but you're to only have one of those things, Katie, you get to answer this question because you've done it. What would you say? I'm actually team agent. I don't know if it's because like I only have. handful of them, right? But my four princess medals are proudly displayed in my office at work and I get to see them every day. get me wrong, Main Street and the castle was wonderful and it was definitely a booth that I needed. But those medals are like an everyday reminder that I can do hard things. Yeah. And, and you, yeah. And obviously the tie to will and how you got through myelotent. yes, I totally, totally understand. And welcome to the team. That's awesome. I'm so glad to have you on team, team finisher medal. That's awesome. Well, thank you guys both so much for sharing your story with us today. We hope that this has been encouraging for any of our friends going through the impossible right now. We are super grateful for you guys. Thank you so much. Thanks for being on the podcast. Thank you guys. This has been so inspiring to get to hear these stories of triumph and victory in response to two terrible accidents. Yeah. What an amazing response to something terrible. I mean, I can't even imagine. Yeah. ⁓ also can't imagine saying anything else at this point in the podcast, because, ⁓ these were just so inspiring and incredible that I think I'm just going to leave this one right here. Totally. So that's it for today. We hope you enjoyed these stories and we'll catch you next week for another episode. Thanks for joining us for this episode of One More Run the Podcast. If you like what we're up to, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Instagram. You can find links to all of that at AJNerrica.com.