Overcoming Anything

Overcoming Everesting with Clay Eschrich

• Anne Vryonides • Season 1 • Episode 15

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Episode 15: Overcoming Everesting with Clay Eschrich

What does it really take to keep going when your body is screaming to stop, the weather turns against you, and you’ve already been “tapped out” more than once? In this episode of Overcoming Anything, we explore what happens when you commit to something so hard it forces you to meet the strongest — and the weakest — parts of yourself.

Clay Eschrich grew up in Ten Sleep, Wyoming at the base of the Bighorn Mountains, later becoming a science teacher, coach, and eventually a senior leader in the financial services industry. He is now Senior VP and part owner at Impact Partnership, and has attempted the 29029 Everesting challenge six times, finishing it three.

Key Takeaways

  • Why Everesting (29029) is one of the toughest endurance events in the world
  • How Clay turned multiple “did not finish” attempts into lessons learned, growth, supporting peers, and resilience
  • The mindset shift of “don’t let your pain have a voice” and how doing hard things transforms every area of your life

Timestamps
00:00 – Intro & Clay’s mantra: “Don’t let your pain have a voice”
04:45 – What 29029 Everesting is (and what it isn’t)
11:30 – Early attempts, getting tapped out, and lessons learned
20:40 – Losing 50 pounds and rebuilding health at age 60
28:55 – Whistler: going out too fast + nutrition mistakes
36:10 – Mont Tremblant redemption: pacing, strategy, and finishing
44:30 – How doing hard things builds grit, leadership, and identity
52:20 – Clay’s advice for facing your own “mountain”

Connect with Clay
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clay-eschrich-a6055276/ 

Recommended Resources

If you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who needs encouragement, grit, or a reminder of what’s possible when you decide to do something hard on purpose. Your shares and reviews help this show reach the people who need these stories most.

Credits
Host: Anne Vryonides
Guest: Clay Eschrich

Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational and inspirational purposes only and not a substitute for professional, medical, or psychological advice. The views of each guest are their own.

Please rate Overcoming Anything so this podcast can reach the people who need it most.
 ❤️ Anne

Speaker:

Welcome to Overcoming Anything, the podcast where we dive deep into stories of resilience, transformation, and growth. I'm your host, Anne Vryonides, and today we have an incredible guest who has overcome Everesting and many mountaintops. So joining me today is Clay Eschrich senior VP of Life recruiting and Distribution partners. And part owner of Impact Partnership, an independent marketing organization. And if the challenges of making and closing deals wasn't enough for this ambitious achiever, he has also participated in 29 0 2 9 6 times, finishing it three times. So before we go dive in, I just wanna say welcome, Clay. We're so excited to have you here.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate the time. Thank you.

Speaker:

Yes, absolutely. So I always love to ask, what is one quote or mantra that keeps you going in tough times?

Speaker 2:

There's one that I've. Kind of grabbed onto, there's a ex Navy Seal his name's Chad Wright. And, he has actually has a podcast called Three of seven. He worked, I think with Obama's group in the CIA, but he's back here in Georgia and we've had him talk, with our organization a lot. But he's a ultra endurance athlete, things like that. But he's got several that he puts out there. And one is don't die in the chair. So that means, you know, get off your butt and get things done. But one of my favorite is don't let your pain have a voice. And so that one is like, when you're in tough times, whether it's physically hurting, mentally hurting, or what, don't let it come out. Don't give that pain, the voice to, to talk to you, to, to discourage you from what you're trying to accomplish. So I like that one.

Speaker:

Oh, I love that too. That's perfect for the podcast. Overcoming Anything, don't let your pain have a voice.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker:

So empowering. So let's go ahead and start at the beginning. So what is the most difficult thing about climbing Everest?

Speaker 2:

Well, first, let me clarify. We're not actually climbing Mount Everest itself.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So there were three guys here in Atlanta, mark Holi Holli, Colin o' Brady, and Jesse Itzler. Again, they're all endurance athletes. They've done incredible things. In fact, Colin o' Brady has actually climbed. Mount Everest itself twice and once with his wife. Jesse Itzler is an entrepreneur here locally and he's actually married to Sarah Blakely, who owns Spanx.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And, and we have a great relationship with them. They're wonderful. They do a ton of things for our company. And then Mark, was also an endurance athlete, so they all got together and said, what's an endurance event that they could put together? That could maybe the normal person, you know, like you and I, if we had enough training and things like that, could actually endure. So the event they named it 29 0 2 9, which is for 29,029 feet, which is the elevation of Mount Everest. Okay. So they referred to it as Everting and what they did is they went out and they. They rented a mountain, like a, a ski mountain, like snow basin in Utah. And I don't know if you ever skied or not, but you know when you ski down the black diamonds? Yes. Well, we're climbing up'em. Wow. So what they do is you start at the bottom and the last one I did was it was 1.7 miles up. So you climb up it and the, the degree of of incline was as much as 45. Percent incline, which is pretty steep, and it's only 1.7 miles up. And then you get to actually take the gondola down. But you have to go up 15 times. Oh wow. And you have 36 hours to complete it. And so each time you do that 1.7 miles, you're gaining about 2000 feet of elevation. So that's why you have to do it 15 times.'cause once you've completed it, you've done almost 30,000 feet of elevation, which is equivalent to Mount Everest. Got it. Well, that's how it got its name. That's how, how it does it. But these guys, they started in 2017 and, my first one was in 2019.'cause in 2018 they met our CEO and the president of my company, he's kind of the, the king of the mountain, Thomas Zey, he's actually done it 17 times. Finished 17 times. But anyway, they started this out and each year they'd add a mountain to where this year they've actually had seven different mountains to, to be able to do it. And the next one coming up is actually in Aspen, Colorado. So the elevation's gonna be really high. They're gonna be starting at 9,000 feet, climbing to about 11,000 or 12,000 feet. But what it's done is over the years when they keep growing, this is, it's created this community that's just unbelievable. Where everything's positive. It's not a race. So you're not racing against each other each other. It's all the race is within yourself of doing something hard. And you know, and it takes you to really difficult places. I mean, there's guys doing it and gals doing it that have done a hundred mile races, triathlons, Ironmans, marathons, all sorts of things. And they ranked this up there as one of the toughest, because it lasts for 36 hours, where you run a marathon, you can get it done to four to six, four to seven hours, and you're done. But with this, you're gonna end up. Climbing over 32, 33 miles and you have, like I said, you have to, there has to be a lot of thought about it. There's tons of science in it where you have to have the right nutrition, you have to have the right hydration so you don't cramp up and things like that. You gotta get your pace down so you're not overdoing it and things like that. And that's the hardest, probably one of the hardest parts. But the part that changes you is when you make the decision to do these things. Is the commitment, you're committing yourself to putting in a lot of time, lot of effort. And so when I first did this in 2019 you know, I grew up in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. So mountains didn't mean anything to me. I used to. Go up backpack and then go hunting and all sorts of things and, and was no big deal. Right. I'm a lot older now. I'm gonna be 62. I'm gonna be 62 in December. And, so in 2019 when I first did it, it was a mountain in Vermont called Mount Stratton.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And it's not that high. In fact, the climb was only 1.3 miles. Each mountain has its own. Thing that comes into play to make things hard.'cause when, if anybody asks you, which is the easiest one, there's no easy one. But they all have different things of difficulty. And with Stratton it was the weather,'cause it's in late October, and so we had to deal with it rained the day before, so everything was muddy and sloppy. Then it got cold that next day, and by the end of the first day you start Friday morning at 6:00 AM and the event is over at 6:00 PM on Saturday. That's the 36 hours.

Speaker:

So do you sleep at all or you just keep going?

Speaker 2:

Well, that'll be part of the, yeah, because normally No, but good question. So, but with that one, the, it snowed. There was 30, 40 mile an hour winds, the windchill got down to 10 degrees and you know, so you're having to battle that. And I wasn't totally prepared with what to wear, my feet got wet and things like that.'cause we just, I never done it before, and you didn't know what to expect. And they do a great job of coaching you and preparing you. The coaches are absolutely fantastic that they start training you in January and end of. On, uh, weekly coaching calls on what to do, how to prepare and all that, and they're, I'll give a shout, shout out to Mark, Matt Burrell and Brent Peace. They're just two phenomenal guys that if they're good friends now I'm at, they've helped me so much and just my whole adventure of this. But anyway. I

Speaker:

know for, training, are you taking six months, nine months to prepare?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, well, usually they started out and the official training was like four months.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And so the first time, that's probably what I did. But as every time I did it, I learned more. You know, it's the old saying, you learn more by your mistakes or your failures. But I don't ever call'em a failure. I did it the first time. I thought, oh, I failed it. I didn't complete it.'cause I got knocked out at two in the morning. You had to do this one 17 times. And I got 12 done. But I actually was having asthma problems with the cold and couldn't breathe. And so they tapped me out and so I felt I failed it. But my coaches were like, you didn't fail. You left it all on the mountain. You gave it everything you did. And the other mantra that. That I use sometimes is you go till your body breaks. And so that's what I did. I mean, I did it I did it as long as I could. The sleep part, I was very slow. So, no, you hardly get any sleep. You take little naps here and there in between climbs.

Speaker:

Okay. So,

Speaker 2:

um, so from the first one. I learned a lot. It was eye-opening, but I knew how to prepare better. Then 2020 was COVID 2021. I signed up to do snow basin in Utah. And that one's, you know, your higher elevation, you're going from 7,000 to 9,000 feet elevation.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And, um, you had to do it 13 times. It was one point or 2.3 miles up.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And you had to do it 13 times. The thing with Utah is it's in, August, so it got extremely hot. So it's in the high nineties during the day and it's that dry heat. Mm-hmm. And you know, you're you don't realize, you know how much you're sweating'cause you can't feel it, it evaporates.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And it was, it's also very steep and long. But on that one I was having back issues before I went and did it, but I went ahead and, and attempted it, and I got 10 out of 13 and I did not finish again.'cause that morning, I was well on pace. I had the time that I, I had time to finish, but my back just froze up on me and I couldn't go any further. So, again,

Speaker:

oh no,

Speaker 2:

exactly like, not failure, but disappointment and frustration. So the next year. I dropped a little bit of weight and I, but I trained harder and I knew what to expect. I paid more attention to the hydration and, and the, the eating, because each time you go up, you burn up 500 plus calories.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

And if you don't replace that. Nutrition, then it starts eating at your body and that's what wears your muscles down. And if you're not drinking enough water or electrolytes, you start cramping up, have muscle issues, things like that. So when I got uh, when I finished the next year, I went back in 2000, 22 to snow basin and. I got the red hat. That's the big prize. It's kind of funny. It's a, it's a red hat that has 29.029 on it. And the only people that have, those are people that have finished that climb, you know? So here's the 35 red hat that we're all excited to get, but, and I think you saw it in the picture I sent you. But anyway, on that one. I got it done in 35 hours and 10 minutes, but I only slept three hours the whole time. And in the last two since I was exhausted, I was just going on fumes but it's when people say, which one's your favorite one? I say, well, probably. The second time I did Utah,'cause I finished for the first time. But I loved it and I also hated it. I did and but, but I had a lot of teammates there.'cause out of our, our company we've had, we have about 130 employees and probably 40 to 45 have attempted doing at least one mountain. And we've probably had half that have finished at least once. So that's cool. It creates a sense of energy and cohesion within the company.'cause it really does change your life. I mean, it, it puts things in perspective. It, again, it makes you focus on things better. It makes you a better husband, makes you a better father, makes you a better coworker, better manager. Because you just see things different. And, it, it sounds kind of cliche and corny, but you'll hear almost everybody that have has done it, whether they finish or not. They'll say that. So then the next year I kind of went, okay, I finally got my red hat. I'm done. It's like the Brett Fav thing. I'm retiring. Oh, nope, I'm coming back. Well, then my president Thomas Ze, he's always, he's all over me. He is like, oh, you gotta do it again. So I, so I skipped the year, but I watched all my teammates go to Jackson Hole and do the one there, and I missed it so bad. I was back at the office through texts and things like that, phone calls, cheering'em on, helping'em coach, push'em, yell at'em, whatever. And so, so that year. See 2020 23. I turned 60 on December 30th and I'd got up to 297 pounds. Didn't feel good. Wasn't happy with my health. You know, I was happy in my marriage and work was going good and stuff like that, but could definitely get better. Mm-hmm. And so on. My wife had got us, had rented a bed and breakfast down in southern part of, Georgia. And, we just had a few days there and I just kind of put things in perspective and said, I'm making a change. So I signed up to do I signed up to do Mount Tre land, which was in Quebec. Canada and, I started on January 1st, so the day after my birthday is when I started training. I mean, you start out and you feel terrible. You're like, I'm so outta shape. And it's mainly, doing 2, 3, 4 miles a day. I was up to where I was doing four to five miles a day every day. And a lot of it's just walking. You try to find a place where there's incline. And then we have a small mountain here called Kennesaw Mountain. It's only 1.3 miles high, but it's not as steep. And then obviously when you train you, you go up, but you also gotta come down, so that's hard on your quads and your knees. So you gotta be careful of that. I was putting in four to five miles a day, and then on weekends I'd do anywhere to 10 15, sometimes 20 miles on the weekend. And so I just got in way better shape, but I got really serious about what I was eating. I've always struggled with my weight. I've tried every kind of diet out there, or eating regime or whatever. I've, keto works pretty good for me. I can't have a lot of carbs, but what put me over the edge was, was intermittent fasting.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And I, but I had to do it pretty extreme where I, I took like an 1819 hour window where I fasted, and then I had a five hour window that I could eat. But once your body gets used to it. You feel so much better. I always eat my lunch is like my main meal about one o'clock, and then if I get home at five or six and I'm still hungry, I just would eat something real healthy, but it wouldn't take much and I was good. And that's what finally got, well anyway, I dropped 50 pounds.

Speaker:

Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 2:

So imagine wearing a 50 pound backpack and throwing that off.

Speaker:

Yeah. You're lighter. Easier to send the mountain.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Yes. So that was, so that's an accomplishment that would not have happened. If I didn't have the focus of this event. And then again, you have the coaches, they have weekly coaching calls. You have your teammates that you're hiking and walking with and encouraging each other, and that's the cohesiveness it brings to the company. And then I, since I'm, I'm the old dog a lot of younger people,'cause they're like, well man, if Clay can do it, I, I should try this. You know, and a lot of'em are in their twenties, thirties, and forties. And, so they're out there, signing up for the first time and all that. But anyway, I went to Mount Treble, this was last year in 2024. And, I still finished in the 35th hour. Okay. Outta 36 hours, but I got six hours sleep.

Speaker:

That's good. So

Speaker 2:

that was, that was the, the thing is I wanted to have 11 of'em done by midnight and I, I hit that and then I slept a good four to five hours, got up, and then I had four more to do the next day, and then that pressures off of you of trying to, if you get behind the clock and things like that. So, and then the last two climbs were there was a torrential downpour. There's always something, but it felt so good. Yeah.

Speaker:

So, where do you sleep? Are you sleeping at the, the bottom of the mountain? Are there cots in a tent or where

Speaker 2:

they, some of'em have these, these tents with cots in there. Other places, there's, they, you stay in the hotel right by the resort. Oh, okay. There, but a lot of times you're just, you're going into the recovery room and maybe sitting on a lounge chair and taking a nap or whatever. But for this one, I actually went to, I took a shower, went to bed. Got the five hours sleep and woke up like, okay, I'm ready to go. So then fast forward to this year I'd made the commitment again.'cause again, my boss is always like, all right, where are you going this year? You know, he won't let me quit. And uh, so I signed up for Whistler, which is in, up in Vancouver, Canada. It's absolutely beautiful. The difficult thing about that one is it's four miles long. So it's the length of it, that's the challenging part, and you have to do it eight times.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

So again, I started training right away in January. What I noticed with my weight loss and stuff like that, I got a lot faster. Just, it was, I been the best shape I've, I've been in in years and kept the weight off. That was the other big thing, is just not ballooning and yo-yoing, you know, I, I, I still ate healthy and, and all that. And in the meantime at work, I got added some more responsibility to me that, where I was running three parts of the, of the company and it actually made me feel younger, more energetic. More involved, more a part of the company. And, I'm working with these young, young people that, on the recruiting side, teaching them how to do it and things like that. And I love helping people get better and mentoring them and growing them and see them succeed and, and become, hit their goals of what they want to do. Excellent. So yeah, so for this one then, I asked my wife, I said, would you like to come and watch on this one?'cause I've never done that before. And she's like, oh, Whistler, yeah, I'd love to go to Whistler. Well, next thing I know, she invites my mother-in-law and father-in-law. And then they invite my brother-in-law and his fiance. And I'm like, oh God, pressure, I'm having this, the whole family there. But what was unusual about this is when I skipped that one year, a lot of the people here at work that, did Whistler and so I was all by myself. Nobody from the office or anybody was there, so that was different and I thought I might enjoy that'cause I could focus on myself, but I didn't realize how much I lost not having those teammates there for me to not, I get my energy from helping others sometimes and not having that hurt. So anyway, I go into this thing more fired up in the best shape of my life. I got my family there. We went up there early so we could enjoy the area and stuff beforehand felt I was really mentally prepared. Well, then disaster happens.

Speaker:

Oh no.

Speaker 2:

That you, you don't prepare for, you think you're the most prepared human in the around. And so when it started that morning, man, I was ready to go. I was toward, there was 350 people. And I was towards the front of the line. Well, the first ascent, which was four miles. I did in two hours and 10 minutes, which is extremely fast. And I should have probably do, been doing it in two hours and 45 minutes, or even three hours. And so I did that one really fast. And even the coaches were like, clay, you gotta slow down, you know? And you're kind of like, what are you talking about? I did that so fast, you know, I'm patting myself on the back. Well, then the next one I did in about two hours and 25 minutes, which was still too fast. Well, what happened is, I did those first two so fast, it really burned my legs. Up, but then I, the night before they have you, they give you instructions on what to do with taking electrolytes and things like that. And I made the mistake if I didn't dilute the electrolytes enough, so I took'em the night before and that morning, and they really got me upset to my stomach.

Speaker:

Oh man.

Speaker 2:

And so I was battling that the whole time. Upset stomach not feeling good, but yet body felt good, and, so then I, I did two more since, and I actually had four since then. I had half of it done at 6:00 PM the first day. So I was way ahead of schedule, but I just felt so terrible. That I took a break after the fourth one and I was, they still serve breakfast, lunch, and supper so you can have real food other than all the high energy, high sugar stuff that you eat, you know, the gels and all that to give you energy. So I went and had real food and I just felt terrible. And anyway, I of course lost it all got sick to my stomach.

Speaker:

Did the family members still make it though without you?

Speaker 2:

What's that?

Speaker:

Did the family members still make it? Your wife and her family?

Speaker 2:

Oh no. They were all there. That's what I said. I had the pressure, they were there watching and so they saw how fast I was getting it done and now they realize how tough this really is because when you're just telling people about it, they don't get it till you see it. Then you see just how difficult this endurance event is,

Speaker:

right?

Speaker 2:

And so anyway, one of the coaches are like, go back, get some rest. So I went back to the room, slept for three hours. I set my clock for 1:00 AM. And'cause you also do the night hikes where you have to use the headlamp. And that one's very surreal'cause it's just you and you're just looking at each step, one step at a time, one step at a time. And you can't see the top of the mountain. So you're not messing with your head there going, oh, I gotta go that far. You're just watching where you're stepping. Right. So it's a different kind of, but it's actually very peaceful and just, it's really cool. I, I like the night hikes. Not when you have an upset stomach. Yeah. So anyway, I got the first mile done. Felt pretty good, but when I hit the halfway point at the second mile, the other thing I wasn't doing is I wasn't resting enough at the halfway point. And I was just going through, well anyway, again, I got sick to my stomach more, I was getting disoriented, feeling dizzy. I have a very low heart rate, but it got up, my resting heart rate got up to like 98, 99. So I wasn't feeling good. And uh, so I, I rested at the aid station or the tent two miles up, waited about an hour, and then the medical guy came up and checked me out and he's like, with the heart rate changing, he is like, I'm gonna tap you out.

Speaker:

Tap you out. Oh no.

Speaker 2:

So again, you just break into tears because you're just like, ah, I was in such good shape. I've done everything right and. So I text my wife'cause it's two or three in the morning. I said, I'm okay, but I'm going back. I'm gonna go to bed. So I slept for six hours, came out the next morning, they met me and then I actually went to the top of the mountain on the gondola to cheer on a couple people I knew and when I was up there. My boss calls me, and this is Thomas. That, that he's the instrumental in all this. And he's just like, how you doing? I'm like, I'm very disappointed and frustrated. He goes, no, I get that. And he goes, well, I got some good news. I go, what's that? He goes, I got you in. To Mount Tre in two weeks.

Speaker:

Oh, wow.

I,

Speaker 2:

and I'm like, Thomas, I actually said I hate you. And he laughed and goes, wow. I said, I said, my head's not in a good place right now. I said, gimme a couple hours. Yeah. And so I thought about it and I thought, I'm still in the best shape I've been in. You know, it's like mistakes were made. And so I called him back and said, all right, let's do this. So the whole 29 0 2 9 crew, we had a cancellation and they got me in. In that only having a two week gap. So I really didn't have to train when I came back. But what I did is I sat down and said, okay, again, I didn't fail. I left it all on the mountain. I did everything I could. I went till my body broke. But I said, what can I do better? Because the life lesson in all of this is in that I, with all my teammates and the guys that work for me with me and things like that, it's like. You know, Michael Jordan always said, you'll learn more from your losses than you do your wins.

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And so that's how I had to look at this, is I said, okay, what didn't I do? Right? And, you know, I figured it out again, the hydration, the food going too fast. And I'd had an injury about a month before my calf had got. Got tweaked and I never had an injury like that before, but I got that healed and that was taken care of. And so anyway, I came back and the, we had a large crew. We had over 20 people from our office going. It's a trim plant, and that's the one I'd done the year before. So I'd already done it before. So I'm familiar with it. So I thought, I'm really gonna go and my goal is, yeah, I'm gonna finish, but I'm also gonna help as many people for my team that I can finish

Speaker:

what was the biggest thing that you left on the mountain?

Speaker 2:

That I gave it my all, I did everything that I could, and again, it was the physical part of it that knocked me out. So when I decided. To do it two weeks later because that's a quick turnaround.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And, um, and so long story short trim plant had a great attitude. But in those two weeks I studied and I, I figured out exactly how much nutrition I needed each climb, exactly how much to drink, and I had it written down. Mm-hmm. And even though, if. I didn't feel like it or my stomach didn't feel good or whatever. I was like, I'm forcing myself to eat this or whatever, and that's what I did. So I followed the guidelines, so I fixed those problems. The other thing, the two coaches, Brent and Matt kept telling me is, you need to go as slower than you've. Gone normally. And they go, you're in better shape, so you're gonna fight it, but make sure you just go slow.'cause it's the, it's a marathon, not a race. Yeah. And so I did and I just kept a good slow, steady pace. And, I had 10 done by, nine 30. My goal was to get 11 done and then maybe do one night hike and just have a couple left the next day. Right. Well, again, those unexpected things that happened at every mountain happened and at nine o'clock this huge thunderstorm came in.

Speaker:

Oh no.

Speaker 2:

And, Jared Lama, one of my teammates and I were hot walking together and we got past the first aid station. And they were like, Hey, the wind's really picking up. They might close the gondolas down so you don't have to hurry to get up there. And we got about 200 yards past the aid station and there was a huge lightning bolt lit up the sky thunder. And we're like, oh. So we put on our rain gear and the sky just unloaded. It was the one of the hardest rainstorms. The wind got up to 50 miles an hour. It turned into sleep. So it's just whipping and hitting us. At least it was from the backside, so it kind of pushed up the mountain faster,

Speaker:

done at the top with all that, crazy weather.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And so we were only halfway up and so. It's 1.7 miles for a sense. So we only had about a half a mile to go. And we got up there and we were just soaking wet and we got up, but it changed all our plants'cause we didn't have time to do another one. They shut the gondola down for an hour,'cause the lightning. So the next day they gave us an extra hour on the back end to make up for it. But what that created. We made the decision, I'm gonna go back to the hotel and sleep.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

So I actually got four and a half, almost five hours sleep, took a shower and I got up and did another one at 4:00 AM and then did another one at 6:00 AM Then I actually went back and rested for two hours.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

And then I only had, let's see, it'd be 10, 11, 12. So then I only had three more to do. And so I cranked that one out and then the last I got done at, the earliest I've ever gotten, one done at four o'clock, and the finish time is normally six, but it was seven. So I got done in virtually 33 hours out of the 36, but with over eight hours sleep, finished with all sorts of energy and stuff and it, and then I had all my teammates there cheering me on and I'm pretty emotional guy. I got more emotional by seeing my teammates finish. And there were some great, everybody's got wonderful stories. Like we had one gal from our operations team that it was her sixth time she's tried it.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

And she never finished. But this year she went to the gym, she went to cross training and she dropped 25 pounds and got super strong and she finished it in fact. She finished it before I did. She was on her final ascent. When you're on your final ascent, they give you a red bib that says Final ascent on it. Oh yeah. So when you see people with red bibs, you're just cheering'em on. I was on my 14th and she was on her 15th, but I gotta hike with her the whole way. Oh. And it just created this incredible bond. And I was so happy when she finished and then I went down and got my red bib and then I came and finished and she was up there waiting for me.

Speaker:

Oh, that's good. So what advice do you have for someone who would like to climb a mountain? What would you suggest for them?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's not just the mountain, but just. Do hard things, I admit, make some hard challenges. That's one thing I admire about Thomas, our president, is he goes, you know, you don't have to do 29 with two nine, but there's other things out there. There's a thing called 75 hard, where for 75 days, you might have heard of it. You know, you have to work out twice a day and you gotta watch what you eat. You can't drink, you gotta eat good food. Mm-hmm. Um, there's another one called the 12 hour walk. Colin o' Brady, uh, one of the founders of 29 0 2 9 did that. And what you do is you walk for 12 hours and you can take as many breaks as you want, but you can't have any electronics with you, nothing in your head. It's just you and it's amazing. What you think and learn over those 12 hours, you think about so many different things and how you can get better and what you can do and you end up, like, when I did it, I ended up walking about 34 miles in those 12 hours. So it wasn't, it was phy so physically exhausting, but it was more the mental challenge. But I just tell everybody and encourage'em, to try something real difficult outta your comfort zone. If it's, if you're scared of public speaking, do something that you'll learn more about public speaking or whatever, but it just, by doing that, it just changes so many other aspects of your life. You make you focus on stronger, you, it's like you appreciate things more. And, and the thing about the community of 29 0 2 9 there's one gal that's done it 20 times. She's the queen of the mountain and she's an fantastic human being, amazing physical specimen. She's just incredibly strong. But you know, she's done'em all. But the reason she keeps coming back is she's just, these people all become family. Like I, on Facebook, I probably got 200 people that have all, some of'em I haven't met. I got one gal that was following my story last year, and her and her family were cheering me on and have never met me. Oh. And now she's, she's doing it this year for the first time. So I've been kind of mentoring her, but we've never met.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Love it. You know, we just talked. And so it's, it's things like that just, it's inspiring you get inspired by other people. You're proud of what you've accomplished. You learned, like I said, from your mistakes and get better. And when I was a coach, I coached football, basketball, and track. It was the same thing when, when you got beat, okay, you got beat. But, but okay, what did, what did we do wrong or what, what could we do to get better? Yeah. And that's when, that's when you really feel that, okay, now I'm learning things, getting better.

Speaker:

Okay. All right. So looking back real quick, what is one thing that you learned about yourself having gone through this experience with, trying to climb all these mountains?

Speaker 2:

That I had more grit and determination than I realized. Of what was inside.'cause you get to a real dark place when you're tired.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Like about halfway through your brain starts going, I want to quit. I just want to go sleep. You know, I can't do this. I got too many to do. I don't have enough time. And it's the demons in your head that are talking. You learn to get through and it doesn't have to be climbing the mountain or whatever. It can be anything. It's like if work's getting tough, it is just you have to grind more. You gotta have grit and push yourself through it. And then once you get through it, it's so rewarding.

Speaker:

So what do you tell your demons when they come out?

Speaker 2:

I shut'em up. I just ignore them. You know, I just think of, I think of the positive things. You know, you think of the things like the word good or great, or, when somebody says, how do you, how are you feeling? You know, you don't go, oh, I'm tired. You say, I feel fantastic. You know, and it's those little words that just kind of push you through.

Speaker:

Excellent, excellent. And is there a book that helped you in your journey that you could recommend to any of our listeners?

Speaker 2:

Well, the one that I mentioned in that 12 hour Walk by Colin o' Brady. I think it came out about two years ago, but it's really great. You read the book and, he's just talking about putting things in perspective, getting out of this technology world and getting into yourself more. And then again, you're doing something challenging and hard and he has, there's an app that follows it tracks you doing it, and when you're done, it's just, again, it's another accomplishment, but it, but that one's great.

Speaker:

Excellent. Okay. We'll go ahead and link that down below. Thank you Clay. This has been such an inspiring conversation. Thank you so much for your time. And, how can people connect with you? I'll link the 29 0 2 9 website down below if someone else wants to, join you on your next journey. And where can they connect with you directly?

Speaker 2:

Uh, probably the biggest would be on LinkedIn. You know, I'm on there and that's where I usually. Facebook, I kind of keep more on the personal side of things, but LinkedIn I got a lot of followers on there. And then, yeah, if they go to 29 0 2 9 Everting, they'll see the website and the mountains that they're gonna have next year. Now they have to, if they make the decision to sign up, they gotta do it fast. One of the mountains got totally 350 people signed up in four minutes. Whoa.

Speaker:

Incredible.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Roll up their sleeves and whip out their wallet and jump in.

Speaker 2:

Exactly.

Speaker:

Just do it. Awesome. Well, thank you again. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who might be facing a similar challenge and needs to hear this message of hope and inspiration and how to push themselves outta their comfort zone. So don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you next time on overcoming Anything