 Okay, you know that when I sit in this chair, it's story time. Okay, first of all, we're gonna scoot into the middle a little bit here, maybe up a little bit. All right, that's good. So a lot of you know me as a biker because most of my content on the channel is about biking. Olé, olé, olé, olé. But I do squeak in some running videos every now and then. The sun is coming up and it is a big, beautiful red ball. And then in some other content, I always wanted this channel just to be my life, essentially, not just focusing on one sport. But don't get me wrong, I love all the bike stuff and that brings me a lot of joy. But that's why I like to do these types of videos that are a little bit different. So I was thinking that it'd be fun to make a video about how I got into athletics. Why am I the guy I am today oléing and no crashy and whammying all around the world on bikes and ultramarathons and stuff. So let's go back to when I was a little boy. I was at my well baby checkup. I was about five years old. My mom brought me in. There's a bunch of nurses, they do all the checkups like they normally do and they were taking my blood pressure, with the blood pressure cuff. And I was just a little guy and I don't really remember a lot of this because I was so little. This has been recounted to me by my mother. And the nurse came in, took my blood pressure and my mom could see in her face that something was wrong. And the nurse told her that my blood pressure was 160 over 140. If you know anything about what normal blood pressure is, this is not normal. It was extremely high. The nurses didn't believe it. Little kids usually don't have high blood pressure like this. So then she went out and called in another nurse just to double check, make sure she didn't do it wrong. The other nurse comes, put the cuff on me and she takes it again, boom, 160 over 140. And to make a long story short, they thought I was gonna have a stroke right then and there. That is extremely high blood pressure for a little person. And so from that moment on, I was in and out of the hospital all the time because they were trying to pinpoint what was causing this high blood pressure. And again, I have pretty faint memories of all this. This has all been told to be by my mom. And she would bring me to the hospital and they'd do all these scans. I remember going in cat scans. I remember having my blood drawn and overnights in the hospital. And I really did not like it, of course. Nobody likes going to the hospital. And they could never really figure out what was causing my high blood pressure. I was the only kid to go through the CU Med Center here in the University of Colorado and they couldn't pinpoint it. They couldn't figure it out. And I went through months and months of testing. But they did find that this one medication worked to keep my blood pressure down. And so from the age of five years old, I started taking pills every day to keep my blood pressure down. And the reason why that's important is because if your blood pressure is that high for that long, it can lead to strokes and other problems, heart attacks and things like that. And of course at five years old, none of this is normal. And this is where things changed for me in my life. And this was a vivid memory. I will never forget my doctor looking at me and saying, Ryan, this is very serious. And the best way to combat this problem is to be really healthy. And that means heart healthy. So you need to be as active as possible. You need to strengthen your heart. And as a little boy, I was like, okay, yeah, I trust you doc, I'm on it. I'm gonna figure this out. And it's a funny thing to think about now, a little boy really taking doctor advice seriously and changing habits. You think of adults changing the way they eat or things like that to live a healthier life. But at five years old, I was like, okay, I'm on it doc. And that's when I started running. It's kind of my forest gump moment. I was running and I would run before school in elementary school. It was crazy. Most kids don't like running, right? Luckily I liked running and I was pretty good at it. And I knew that it was gonna be healthy for me. If I wanted to live a long life, I needed to run essentially. And my school also had a race at the end of the year called the mile marathon. And this race was a big deal. It was the end of the year celebration. All the kids got excited for it. And in gym class, we would prepare for it. We'd do little running activities. And I was always the fastest and I was so into it. And I loved being competitive at a young age. I loved winning. We all love winning, right? So here I am, a little kid. I run all the time. Running is my sport now. And then I would beg my mom to sign me up for races. You know, boulders are a very active town. Luckily in the 80s, there were little 5Ks and 10Ks. And I would do all these races. And I was always competitive and I loved going fast. And I loved pushing my body. And I also competed, of course, in the Boulder Boulder. When I was six years old, I ran my very first Boulder Boulder. And it's a big race. And I'll never forget my mom just kind of trusting that everything was going to be OK. I went to the start line with my friend and his parents. I was just a teeny little guy. And I lost them immediately. And I just kind of took off running. And I did the whole race by myself. And I remember running into the stadium where the race finishes with the Marines. I ran right alongside them, I think, because I liked their pace. Left, left, left, right, left. And I finished that first Boulder Boulder. And it lit a fire in me. It really did. And so from that moment on, every year I ran the Boulder Boulder, I ran every race that I could. I did summer track. My events were the mile and the 800. I started getting faster and faster and more competitive. In eighth grade, I won the state championship in the 800. And when that happened, I was like, OK, this could be a way for me to go to college and get scholarships. Because I knew that my family wasn't going to have the money to pay for college. So I was going to have to figure it out myself. And then I went to high school, joined the cross-country team. I was on varsity as a freshman, which is pretty hard to do. But by this point, all the other kids in the state had kind of caught up to me. So I was the best when I was young, because the competition isn't all that great. But everybody starts developing and getting stronger by the age of 15, 16, 17. And I wasn't the fastest anymore. I was good, but I wasn't the fastest. And that was hard for me to swallow, because I loved winning races. But that's when running for me turned a little bit from being the best and having Olympic dreams to like, OK, I'm just going to run because I love running. And it's my way to connect with the outdoors. Every run for me is an adventure. I get to explore. Luckily, I live in Boulder. And there's all these beautiful trails all around me. But also, I loved the community. The cross-country teams at Boulder High School were so nice. And most runners are nerds. And what are nerds? Nerds are nice. And I loved the supportive atmosphere of the cross-country teams. And the boys and the girls got to train together. So we got to hang out with pretty runner girls. This was so cool. In eighth grade, I did football and all those other sports. And I was always strong. And I could hold my own. But I didn't like the culture of football. I loved the culture of the cross-country team. And then after high school, running for me was just a way to stay in shape. Again, remember, the whole reason why I started running when I was young was to strengthen my heart and to be healthy and to be able to live a long life. I'm going to go back a little bit. But when I turned 16, I decided not to get a driver's license for many reasons. One, our family didn't have the money to buy a car, so what's the point of getting a license? But two, I got really environmentally minded. And I wanted to do everything I could to save the planet, essentially. And so in my mind, I'm thinking, all right, I'm not going to have a car. I'm never going to have a car. I'm going to ride my bike everywhere I go. And I made that pledge at a very young age. And I am 43 right now. You can see all the gray hairs. I have still never had a car in my life. And I ride my bike everywhere. People always ask me, how can you function in today's society without a car? And it's very easy for me. It's because I've created a life where biking is how I get around. And again, luckily, I live in Boulder, which is a very bike-friendly city. And the weather is pretty mild. And even when it's snowy, you just wear warm clothes. And I love biking. And you all know this because it just makes me feel alive. You have that feeling of freedom every time you get on your bike and the wind and your hair and you're cruising around town and you're not insulated in a little car or listening to music, you're not even, when you're in a car, you're not engaging with the world. But when you're on a bike, you can like say hi to people, you can stop whatever you want and visit with your neighbors. And so I've always loved riding a bike. Happy Thursday, happy, happy Thursday, happy Thursday, happy, happy, hey! And my love for biking and being outside and connecting with nature and myself is essentially what created my career After college, I joined the Peace Corps and I lived in Honduras for two years and I worked with kids and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I lived in a small village in the mountains of Honduras and I'll never forget those times. It was a highlight of my life, even as hard as it was. Of course, it was hard to live far away from home in a foreign country. It was a very beautiful, romantic, simple way of living. And when I finished my service, many of you have heard this story many times, I decided to cash in my plane ticket, buy a bicycle, and ride my bike from Honduras back home to Boulder. And that's exactly what I did. And that adventure was pivotal in my life, in creating the career that I have today as a storyteller. I haven't always been a YouTuber. I worked in the TV world for many years. But that ride was the catalyst. Every day I'd get on my bike and pedal, pedal, pedal as far as I could. I'd meet wonderful people. I rode through storms and hurricanes and I'd never felt so alive. It was so exciting every single day. And I documented the entire adventure on my little Sony handicap and made a video about it. And so when I got home from that ride after three months, I decided, okay, I want to somehow make a living by being a storyteller. And at the time there was no YouTube. It was just TV. So I really tried to be like a travel channel, adventure host guy. And I had some success for about 10 years, but it was difficult. Why are there boxing gloves in a tasting room? And now I know, it's the bass drum. Time for a ho-down. But that led me to YouTube where I thought, okay, I'm gonna try my hardest to create a channel on YouTube. Build up my own audience big enough to the point where I can make a living, but also share stories that are meaningful to me and hopefully to the audience. And I don't have any editors at a TV station saying, cut this out, cut this out, cut this out. I can do whatever I want. And I'm sitting here right now doing exactly that. A video like this would never play on the travel channel, but on YouTube, it's great. And I have built up an audience and I'm so incredibly grateful. And now this brings me back to the point of this whole video. How did I get into being an athletic guy? And it was something that was initially horrible, severely high blood pressure. My mom was terrified. Her little boy was in and out of the hospital all the time. Would this lead to other problems in life? We didn't know at the time, but that doctor said, you need to be athletic. And that led me to being a runner. And I am so grateful in a weird way for that diagnosis at five years old because it led to who I am now. And it's a beautiful life. And I love it. And I love connecting with all of you. And luckily, I'm healthy now. I took those pills that controlled my blood pressure from age five to about 25, all the way through the Peace Corps. And now my blood pressure has stabilized. I do check it from time to time just to make sure. Make sure I'm still healthy. And we're down to about 120 over 80, which is great. And that's why I wanted to make this video. I just wanted to tell you a story about how this all happened. And everybody has a unique origin story about how they became who they are. And it doesn't always involve athletics, but it's always some sort of unique story. And it's something in life that seemed horrible, but led to something very good. And here I am today in Boulder, grateful for this beautiful life. My heart is healthy, my body is healthy. I have the ability to go on grand adventures and run 100 mile ultramarathons and ride my bike for thousands of miles. And I will never stop being grateful for this body. And I want to share this story because we all have struggles in life. We all go through tough times, dark times. Sometimes it's physical ailments or sometimes it's mental depression or problems with family members or relationships. And it's hard. I get it. I've gone through a lot of different stuff as have every one of you. It's part of being a human. We're not always bouncing off the walls with joy. Not at all. That's not real life. You know, the great thing about being a human is that we can get through tough times. We are resilient. We've done it for thousands of years. It's part of us. It's part of our DNA. And I was told something that was pretty scary at five years old, but I turned it around. And I've done this many times throughout my life, just like all of you have. You wouldn't be who you are today without going through the tough times. And I've always learned the most about myself when I go through tough times. And sometimes they're voluntary tough times. I go on these adventures that are very, very difficult and it pushes me to my absolute limits. And I have to stop and think, I chose to be here. I wanted to do this really hard thing. And here I am. And all of the tools that I've learned throughout my life of going through difficult moments are gonna help me now in this moment to get me forward, you know? And I really value when, it sounds weird to say, I value the tough times, even though of course it sucks sometimes. It's absolutely agonizing no matter what you're going through. Times can be tough and you don't see a way out, but there's always a way out. And I try to look at every situation in a positive light. And how can I learn more? And how can I turn this situation around? And how can I make this bad thing into something positive? And it doesn't always work out. It doesn't. But as long as you're trying your hardest and you really deeply believe in what you're doing and you use your tools and your heart and your friends and your community, you can get through just about anything, I think. So that's enough of me blabbing, right? I wanted to make this video because I wanted to share this story with you. I think it's unique. And it's who I am today because of that diagnosis at five years old. And I'm incredibly grateful for this body and this life and this family I have. All of you people out there, I'm so grateful that I get to share these stories with you and I will continue to do it and I will continue to interact with you. And I want you to share with me your triumphant stories when you do hard things and when you challenge yourselves, it makes me happy. We've built a community here. This is a team. We are a team, my friends. And I want you all to do your best. And I want you to get to the mountaintop, whatever that mountaintop is. So thank you so much for watching this long video of me just talking in front of the camera. Please like and subscribe. If you're new to my channel, I have adventure videos from all over the world that will probably put a smile on your face. My goal is to always show the best of humanity and mother nature and put it all together in a nice little package. And yeah, I'm sitting here with a smile. Life is good. And you're number one. You, right there. You're number one. Oh, and don't forget, get off your couch and get out there.