S9E1 -- Ohana Guest : Bill Justus Gives 108%

Pain is one thing. Earning the right to keep moving is another. Bill Justus has spent five decades building an endurance life that refuses to shrink, and at 63 he’s still lining up for brutal challenges for one simple reason: he still can.

We talk through Bill’s mindset when the pain cave hits and how gratitude becomes a real performance tool, especially after facing cancer and CIDP. Then we get into the deep cuts from a legendary racing resume: old-school triathlon days before modern fueling, the thin-air grind of Pikes Peak, and the Canadian Death Race where a tiny coin and a cold river crossing become part of the myth. Along the way, Bill shares what it was like racing the Haney to Harrison 100 and meeting Steve King long before most people knew him as the voice of Ultraman.

The heart of the conversation is Ultraman Canada and the hard reality of shoulder surgery recovery. Bill breaks down two major rotator cuff injuries, the fight to complete the 10K swim, the moment his body stopped cooperating on the bike, and why choosing an honorable DNF can be the smartest move for long-term health. We also highlight the power of a great crew, what it means to show up anyway, and how to keep your identity intact when the day doesn’t go to plan.

Finally, Bill tells the story that changed thousands of Saturday mornings: bringing Parkrun to Canada in 2016 and helping grow a nationwide community of free weekly 5Ks built on accountability, volunteering, and friendship.

If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a training partner, and leave a five-star rating and review so more athletes can find it. What’s one goal you’re chasing simply because you still can?

Contact Bill through : Epic 365 Coaching 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Ultraman Canada
• Double Brown
• Pikes Peak
• Canadian Death Race
• Parkrun
• IM New Zealand
• Peach City Runners
• Osaga KT-26
• Nike waffle 
• Terry Fox Run
• Haney to Harrison 100km
• Saucony
• Comrades Marathon
• UM Australia
• The Monster
• Chicago Marathon
• London Marathon

Shout outs and mentions in this episode:

• Kyle Figuiredo
• Mallory Pullman
• Sarah Latonas 
• Ramiro Gutierrez Piedra
• Scott James
• Julie Moss
• Steve Brown (S2E13)
• Tess Porter 
• Al Howie
• Tom Brown
• Wally Herman
• Terry Fox
• Shane Mascarin (S2E4)
• Steve King (S1E1) (S1E2) (S1E3)
• Gail Laux
• Rob Gibson
• DeGarrett Fulton
• Rhonda Gibson
• Brad Cochrane
• Therese Brabant 
• Paul Sinton-Hewitt
• Euan Bowman 
• Rory Bass (S1E4)

Transcript

Intro And Ultraman Canada Highlights

Larry 0:29

Hey everybody, it's Time and this is episode number 119. It's been downloaded in 151 countries in over 2750 cities worldwide. Check out our full library for free wherever you got this episode. Before we get started today, I just wanted to extend my congratulations to all of the athletes and all involved in the recent Ultraman Canada. Kyle Figueroetto was the champion, with the two ladies in the race sitting in positions one and two after day two. So another strong showing for females at UMC. Congrats to Mallory and Sarah, who ended up finishing second and third. A special congratulations to Ramiro Guerreras Pedro for passing Gary Wang as the person with the most completed 515 races in the world. Ramiro now sits at 22 and shows no sign of stopping. Today's guest was also at the race, so let's get into that conversation right now. Today we are sitting down with a true legend of the Canadian Ultra Endurance community. At 63 years young, today's guest is a walking blueprint of what it means to battle back, break barriers, and build a legacy that changes lives. He's a military veteran who served as an aircraft electronics technician, a husband, a father of four, and a proud grandfather of nine. His athletic resume reads like an endurance bucket list. We are talking 14 Iron Man Canada finishes, the grueling double brown, the legendary Pike's Peak, and the Punishing Terrain of the Canadian Death Race. He is a self-coached athlete who guides others through his business, Epic 365. And just recently he put his heart on the line at Ultraman Canada. After undergoing two major shoulder surgeries in the past 18 months, he's pushed his body to the absolute limit, conquering the brutal 10-kilometer swim before the physical toll forced him to make an honorable DNF during the 145-kilometer ride on day one. But his massive athletic footprint goes far beyond his own finish lines. He is the visionary pioneer who officially brought the global park run movement to Canadian soil in 2016. What started as a single event in Kelowna has exploded into a nationwide phenomenon with 64 events across the country, inspiring thousands of Canadians to move every single Saturday morning. He coaches, he conquers, and he races for the purest reason of all, because he still can. Get ready for an incredible conversation about grit, community, and the unstoppable spirit of Ultra. Joining me today from his home in Calgary, Alberta, please welcome the father of Canadian Parkrun, Bill Justice. Hello, Bill. Welcome.

Racing With Gratitude At 63

Bill 3:40

Thanks, Larry. Good to see you.

Larry 3:42

Nice to see you. Nice to see you in one piece after what you've been through recently. We're recording this just shortly after your your Ultraman Canada uh event. And it's good to see you holding your head up.

Bill 3:57

Yeah, that that was a chore after the swim, trust me.

Larry 4:01

Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll we'll get into the whole uh uh umc event in just a little bit. Um, but I I would like to start off today um with uh one of the lines from the intro there. Uh you stated that your primary motivation for racing these days is simply because you you still can. And and after um what you've just been through, I'm wondering when you're deep into uh a pain cave at a at a race, how how much does that gratitude of being able to move still fuel you and keep you going? And and what is your personal history that brings you to this place of of gratitude as a way to experience these races?

Bill 4:47

Well, I mean, there's it's quite a quite a long question, but I'll do my best to answer it. Um as you get a little longer in the tooth and a little bit of gray on top, gray on the chin, you start to become pretty introspective about what you can and cannot do. And I am fortunate enough that I've always found a way to dig deep and get stuff done even when I was a young man. So um the fact that I can still do this when a lot of my peer group, guys that I went to high school with, guys I served in the military with, can no longer bend over and touch their toes or clip their own toenails or you know, pick pick a simple task that you you start to lose the ability to do as you get older. Um I'm fortunate enough that I've stayed fit enough that I still get to do this and I get to show my grandkids that I can.

Larry 5:53

Yeah. And and and and you mentioned that with the with the nine grandkids, it's and you're a proud grandfather. Um so so when you're when you're getting to these these races and and they see you doing these amazing things, um, it it must be so inspirational for them. Do they do they kind of pick up on what you're doing and how crazy some of this stuff is, or are they just so used to what you do that they don't even really understand how crazy this stuff is?

Bill 6:25

So my oldest grandson's 26. And uh him and I hike a lot together out in Canaskis country out in you know, the Banff. And uh I can remember a couple years ago, we were out. I had finished a couple of big eds, I think I'd done a marathon, and I was getting sort of getting ready for the the next the next thing, which was supposed to be um UMC 25. And we went for a hike, and I got sort of up on this ledge, and I was breathing pretty good. And I turned around and said, Hey man, sorry we're sorry we're going a little slow today. And he said, I'm just glad I can keep up with the cyborg. Um so that's kind of his take on his grandfather. Yeah um and then as they go down, you know, 21, 18, 14, 9, 8, those that block a group of kids sort of have a an understanding of what I do, but they don't understand why I do it. And it's really tough to explain why you would go out and punish yourself. Um even in even a 10K or a half marathon when you're when you're you know your foot's on the gas pedal, yeah, there's some punishment involved. They don't quite get it. Um my uh middle granddaughter, she's 18, Grace, she's a dancer and she's you know at a very elite level. She's got scholarships to dance schools um down in the US. So she kind of understands the work ethic that has to happen to be able to do what I do. And then the ones below seven, you know, I pick them up and carry them across the finish line. They're just you know, they're happy that I can take them for a bike ride while I'm running behind them, kind of deal.

Speaker 2 8:10

Right.

Bill 8:10

So I want those kids to grow up to know that if you want it and you try, you can get it done. And that's school, athletics, right, music. It doesn't matter what it doesn't matter what the pursuit is. So again, I'm I'm very fortunate that at my age, um, you know, I can still do what I do. You know, I've been through one round of cancer. I was diagnosed with CIDP in uh oh boy, 2010, 2012, which is sorry, what's CIDP? Uh so CIDP is uh chronic inflammatory demol demyelating polyneuropathy, which means that when I got

Facing Cancer CIDP And Comebacks

Bill 8:50

my ass kicked from cancer, when my immune system came back, it thought that my nervous system, the myelin sheath around my nervous system was a foreign body and started to eat it. So, sure enough, couldn't feel my feet, um had a hard time moving. Mishmash uh drugs to try and get it in check because there was no cure then, there isn't now. Um, so again, I'm just I'm tickled pink that I can still get on a bike and ride, still put my running shoes on and go for a run. Um, and I'm not a swimmer, but I can still swim.

Larry 9:24

Yeah, and and I guess this is part of where the your gratitude comes from for being able to do these things is the the things that you faced uh that could have stopped you along the way from doing these things, and that stopped so many of your friends that you've mentioned.

Bill 9:39

Yeah, I mean, again, military for 20 odd years, right? So in indispersion of service, I found a way of to still go out and and do races and and still do events and still create events and still, you know, still inspire people to come out for a ride. The hardest thing when you get to be uh um well known in the endurance community or um as a runner or cyclist, and you say, Hey, Larry, you want to come for a ride? And you'll go, no, thanks. I'm not gonna be able to do that. I'm not even getting my ass handed to me, right? And it's like, well, I want to go for a ride with somebody. I want company. It's not a race, right? Yeah, racing is racing, training is training. And it's hard for most people to wrap their melon around that.

Larry 10:27

Yeah. Well, let's let's get into some of these uh classic races you've done. Like you've been doing this for so many years. Um, there's a couple on your resume that I wasn't familiar with and I was trying to look up. Can you tell us what's what's double brown?

Bill 10:41

The double brown was the predecessor to Iron Man New Zealand. So it was um again just a wonderful event. I went down there as a um as a young fella, not really sure why I was going or what I was doing. I'd never

Old School Races Pikes Peak Lessons

Bill 10:59

really um I was in the military, so I never really traveled much. I had a steel bike. Um, you know, there were no arrow bars back then. You know, you think about where the the sport of triathlon started, you know, back on the big island and uh or back on Oahu, actually. There was nothing. We had no gels, we had no, there was no polyester or anything, there was no goose and special carbon shoes, and there was no like I I didn't do the race. Um but I entered the very I entered when I saw Julie Moss crawl across the finish line and I got to see the ocean for the first time and I went, yeah, no, not happening this year. But it was 50 bucks. Wow. Yeah, right. So and they sent me an Iron Man in training t-shirt and a couple water bottles and a visor when I entered. $50. Think of more is that now.

Larry 11:59

Well, hold on here. I got I got a little I got a little surprise for you. Hold on.

Bill 12:03

All right, yeah, sure. Jesus Christ. My god.

Larry 12:11

Iron Man New Zealand.

Bill 12:13

Where did you get that?

Larry 12:15

Did you go do that? No, you know what? I got that from the uh Steve Brown sale.

Bill 12:21

This is from the Steve Brown sale.

Larry 12:24

Uh I uh not too long ago. Um Steve Brown was selling off all his old posters of Iron Man races and things that he had down at Peach City Runners in the office. Right. And uh so I picked up a few.

Bill 12:39

That's awesome. That's that's awesome. That's that's memorability you don't want to get rid of. Yeah, that's that's some pretty cool stuff. Um yeah, I guess the double brown was more for me, it wasn't about the race, it was more about going getting off the continent and going to find out what the southern hemisphere had to offer. You know, I did uh a 50 mile while I was down there. I went for four weeks, which was way out of my budget, you know.

Larry 13:09

Yeah.

Bill 13:09

Um give you an idea. I was working for the Canadian military at the time, I only made $9,200 a year.

Larry 13:19

And I had 1912?

Bill 13:22

Uh no, that was uh 1980, buddy. Wow. So, you know, it was a shoestring budget. Um I had more fun when I went um and did Pikes Peak because I had a little more money the years I went the year I went and did that.

Larry 13:39

Yeah, tell us about that race, Pikes Peak.

Bill 13:41

So that's you didn't know anything about that race, right? I sent you the results and that's right, yeah. Yeah, I think it was 657 off the mountain, something like that, seven hours. So Pikes Peak, Colorado starts in Manitou Springs, and I got again, had more money, didn't have a lot of money. I lost the Mini Cooper, so imagine this. I I'm living in Winnipeg, I got my Mini Cooper, I drove to Colorado 34 odd hours. I ran uphill. Back then the race was 28.2 miles, where they started Manitose, well, so it was more than the marathon. I ran uphill for 14.1 to 14,115 feet. Got there and said, Do you think special you want? I said, a chocolate chip cookie would go really good right about now, and a glass of chocolate milk. And they had it at the East. It's like the genie. Yeah, it's like other people must have asked for this. So I got the top, powered that back. And there's this spot called the 13 steps to heaven when you're going up and when you're going down, it's about I don't know, 10 or 11 miles in the race. And if you look to your right on your way down, never forget, if you look to your right on your way down, there's a catch net. Because if you miss a step, it's a long, long fall with quick stop at the bottom. But that was back in the years when we believed that you know, if you ate uh raw, almost raw meat, um, and some and a bucket of pasta, you were good to go for the next day. I was I was down there with um, and these names you may or may not know, Tess Porter, Al Howie, uh Tom Brown, uh who else was there, Wally Herman. So those guys, uh Tess was probably the quintessential ultra runner back in the 70s. Al Howie was the one of the best known ultrarunners across the 70s and 80s.

Larry 15:45

Yeah, I recognize that name.

Bill 15:46

Right. Um, and Wally was probably the oldest, and by oldest, he was my age back in those back in those days, and and he was one of those guys that you know kind of said to me, keep doing this as long as you can. I can still do this, I still get to do this. Yeah. And sort of started me down that road of gratitude. You know, back when I was 18 years of age, I had somebody that was 60 plus saying, Hey, don't ever stop.

Larry 16:14

So, how how does uh an 18-year-old start into ultra distance? Usually it's uh it's an older person's game.

Bill 16:22

Well, you're you're talking to somebody who's a little odd. Um how'd I start? Well, I can't catch a football, I can't catch a baseball, which means I can't

Teenage Bets Terry Fox And Running

Bill 16:35

hit uh baseball. Um I can play golf, but let's just call it um chasing the white ball around the course. You know a good hole for me on a on a par five would be probably nine. Um go there to spend some time with friends and their cup of beer. Uh so when I I'm not a big guy now, you know, dripping wet. Yeah, I'm I'm box sixty-five, I'm five foot eight now, I think. I was five nine. But when I was in you know, twelve somewhere in there, um I we figured out I could run. And that was my way of competing with the bigger kids at the time. Oh yeah. And um, you know, in high school around a 402 mile, and I just fell in love with running back in the days when you know high tops were what we had for runner. Yeah I can remember my first pair of real racing shoes, running shoes was an Osaga KT-26. And it's the same time frame as the waffle trainer came out from Nike. Okay, yeah. Um about the same vintage. And I just I fell in love with running and everything about it. Yeah, you know, saw Terry Fox run across the country. My response to that was when he didn't make it, is I ran from Edmonton to Calgary, you know, on a barber. I said to a buddy of mine, we were 17, I think, at the time, maybe 18, not sure.

Larry 18:02

18. If you were in the bar and you were 18. That's the legal age in in Alberta.

Bill 18:08

Okay, so I was 18. I don't think I was 18, but I was 18. Um, I said to my buddy, I'll bet you a case of beer. I can run further in my tank of gas, and you can't go on your tank of gas. And then we started, and he left. I left Saturday morning, he left sometime Saturday afternoon, and he stopped just outside of Calgary, and 29 hours later I was in Calgary.

Larry 18:32

Oh wow.

Bill 18:33

So my dad, I'll never forget it. My dad got interviewed by 630 Chad, so that's going back a few years now. I remember that. I don't know. And they called my father and said, uh, somebody had gotten wind of what I was doing, and then motorhome or something stopped and offered me a sandwich. Yeah. Told the radio station what I was doing, right? And raised money for Terry Fox. Yeah. And uh I called my dad up and he said, Are you Joe Justice? And he said, Yeah, I am. He said, Your son's Bill Justice. And he said, He is? What's wrong? And the guy said, Do you know what your son's doing right now? And my father, honest to God, because I've got the transcript somewhere, said, you know, I must have been 17. He said, he said, uh does any father of a 17-year-old boy know what he's doing at any given point in time? He's running to Calgary. And my said, sounds like Bill, and then hung the phone up. So that's how a young guy gets started in this nonsense. I've just been doing it for it's five decades now, Larry. I've been I've been running. Yeah, that's a great. I don't know how to be any other way.

Larry 19:43

And and and of course, your inspiration there that you mentioned Terry Fox for for people that are not from Canada and may not know Terry Fox. He was a person not much older than you were at that time who was attempting to run across Canada to raise uh money for cancer research because he had lost one of his legs. Uh, he started off in Newfoundland and was trying to run to Victoria. And uh unfortunately the cancer came back and he had to pull out of that run uh just around Thunder Bay, which is about halfway. Um so every year now we have a Terry Fox run. Uh we're 40 plus something years now on the Terry Fox run uh here in Canada.

Bill 20:27

And if you think about the enormous of that, go ahead. I don't care who you are, runner, try and run 26 miles, walk 26 miles every day. Every day. Wind, rain, sun, heat, mosquitoes, flies. Go ahead, give it a shot. Yeah, not an easy task. So full marks for not only who he was and what he did and why he did it, but just the sheer magnitude um of the event. Insane.

Larry 20:54

Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of running around in Alberta, one of the other races that you've done and and was just happening this this weekend now, uh, is the Canadian Death Race. Now I love the name. Um, people outside of Canada might not be as familiar with the Canadian death race. Um, we

Canadian Death Race Coin And Grit

Larry 21:15

had Shane Masker in there this year, um, a former Ultraman Canada finisher. Um, he had to pull out of the race, unfortunately. I saw on his Facebook. But uh congrats to you, Shane, for getting out there and um competing at the Canadian Death Race. Maybe you can tell us, Bill, a little bit about what the Canadian Death Race is.

Bill 21:37

The Canadian Death Race is this itty bitty teeny weeny little 125 kilometer jaunt through the middle of the mountains in Grand Prairie, Alberta. And they take great glee and taking you up to the top of three peaks. Um over the course of the hundred. Through a river crossing at 99. Um race usually starts in in uh 25 degree weather, and you run through the night, so you probably hit five or six. You can't have snow. Um, there are five four checkpoints. Yeah, four checkpoints in the finish line. And you have to carry this tiny little coin with you to pay the ferryman to get across the river. And if you don't have your coin when you get there, you gotta go across basically submerged and hanging on. Yeah, and that river is probably, I don't know, six degrees Celsius. So every time you you go into a checkpoint, you show them your coin that you can move on. You erase your number, I think that was erasure number 22. And you show your coin in, put it back in a little pouch, and keep going. I did it in 99 the very first year. I was like, this sounds like it's gonna be too much fun. Now they had us going through what they called a ditch at the first half first marathon, and it was dry. There wasn't a lick of water in it, so we didn't get muddy, and we went up um to the top of the first climb, so it took 26 miles to get top of the first peak, and then it brought us back down to the starting point in three. So you're uh working your way up, climbing constantly, and then you're an outrigger with one foot in front of you skiing down this back down to the bottom of the valley. Come back in, you check in, you go back up the second climb. Now, the second climb, I got to the top and I've gone from 35. And this after dark, I get to this Bivouac tent. I've been gone from 35 to raining, so it dropped temperature dropped significantly. But we didn't have 99, so that's 27 years ago. These cute little LED headlamps that we've got now that weigh nothing. You know, you had a a scope and five batteries in the back, and you're carrying bags with you in case your batteries ran out, and get to this vivac tent to check in where I thought was the check-in. And uh they said, Oh no, you're not checking in here. I said, Well, I'm on the trail. Um what what's going on? They said, Well, the peak of the mountains out that flap, just follow the trail, go up to the stake we've got in the ground and grab your number and then bring that back. And I went, Okay. I'm in shorts and a singlet, and it's snowing up there. I step up the other side, and as I'm going up the flap, I said to the guys, why aren't you at the top? And the answer was, Well, the quads won't run that high. Too steep and not enough oxy up at 9,000 feet of where it was for the quad to run properly. So they just parked it there and pitched their tent and sent us on our way. It's like yeah. It was the first race where I experienced the the pain cave where you have to ask yourself some serious questions as if you you know why, how come? And I I'll never forget. I got into checkpoint four and my partner was there with my ranger. Now I'm a guy, you talk to anybody, I'm the guy that says, I'll take a slice of pizza on the Iron Man, right? Right? Like I like real food because I learned race on real food. So she was sitting there with with a cold not, I don't know how she didn't she didn't have one piece, um, pepperoni pizza. Waiting for me. It's I don't know, 2 a.m. I pulled in. And sat down in my truck and I said to her, I don't think eating some pizza. I don't think I got with got I there's I'm done. Like there's just not I got nothing left in the tank. Like it's I got 26 kilometers to go and a river crossing. Yeah, I'm good. Uh I think we'll just call it here. We can drive back to the hotel and I can warm up to us shaking, shivering. You know, back in those days I was probably about a buck 45 and 30 pounds lighter than I am right now.

Speaker 2 26:18

Yeah.

Bill 26:19

Nobody fat on me at all. Um, no real muscle mass on me back in those days out because I hadn't put on the muscle from cycling and from swimming. And she stood to me and said, without even missing the beat, she said, Well, you got nothing to prove to anybody but yourself. And I gave her a kiss and said, See ya. I'm not done. And then ran into town. Nice. So that's kind of my my death race experience. It was um, I still have the I mean, uh, if I took you down to my pain cave, there's stuff everywhere. And there's I've got, I bet you there's 500 medals, trophies, awards, posters from places uh I never thought I'd get to. And that's what I mean. It's grateful beyond. I've raced on places that most people even dare to go for a holiday. You know, like back in my era, there wasn't the internet where you're going, huh? When's this race happening? Click, click, click, click, click. It was open up a runner's road magazine, back three pages, close your eyes and go, there. Well, that's where I'm going in August.

Larry 27:27

Yeah. Well, one of one of those races that you went to that is now uh also defunct, uh, not too far here from me in Vancouver was the Haney to Harrison 100.

Bill 27:40

Uh yes.

Larry 27:41

That was that was a great race. Um, I was there a few times uh when Lucy was racing. And uh you you actually got to race with some amazing people at the Haney to Harrison. A lot of people know uh Mr. Steve King as the

Haney To Harrison With Steve King

Larry 27:59

voice of Ultraman. And uh he's he's only the voice of Ultraman now, but he was a phenomenal runner in his day. Um, probably would still beat most people out there right now, I bet. Um and he he was racing with you at the Hainty De Harrison one time. So not many people get to say that they went head to head with Steve King. A lot of the younger people now they know him as the voice and not as the racer. Um, what's it like to race against Steve King?

Bill 28:31

So I understand there's 15 years between me and Steve, right? Um when I raced against Steve, that's actually where I met Steve. That's when we became friends. And uh was this young coconut-sized um cojones on me. So we got to the start line, and I'd never met Steve before, I had no idea who he was. And he didn't know me, and we took off and started running. And so you think about that, it's a hundred. And I think we both left the gate at about well doing kilometers, probably about four tens or around a hundred. Oh yeah. Now uh back in those days, again, there was no goo, there was no tailwind, there was no F2C, there was pick one. It didn't exist. There's no I I I used to take licorice, right? Because it to me that was gel and sugar, so it take longer to digest, you know. Pizza was a my weapon of choice, Pepsi, Coke. Gatorade was sort of in the forefront, but it was too sweet for my palate, didn't like the flavors they had. Anyhow. We're running along, scooting along. I'll I'll never forget. I got uh I think we're about 91. And I would that had been a lead for probably 91 of those 91k on out front. Behind me. And I got to 91 and I was starting to run out of gas, starting to bong, starting to feel the effects of the of the mileage and the pace. And I could hear footsteps. I know who's footsteps, but I could hear footsteps. And uh my uncle was crewing for me, and we had a crew back then. Yeah, my uncle was crewing for me, and he said, This older fellow is coming. No, he's 15 years, like I'm 20 or whatever it was, and Steve's 35. Yeah, and he's coming hard. It's like, yeah, I got no problem, I'll just stay with him. And Steve quietly came beside me and said, Are you okay? And I went, I don't know. And then we ran together for maybe a kilometer or two.

Larry 30:47

Steve Steve King was a psychological warrior, huh? Asking you if you were okay.

Bill 30:52

He's a tough guy, right? And he's a good and and like you said, he was a very gifted and runner. And I would I would still say that if he wanted to put his head down and go, he would he'd crush most people that are his age. Um, yeah, he went by me. Um I think we passed at about 92 or 93k into the race. Yeah, and he was finished at about a five-minute pace, so probably another 35 minutes he was done. It took me an hour. And I got passed by one other guy. So I finished third overall, but I when you know it was like beeble woman bobbling into the baseline because there was the tank was empty and then some like I was on vapor for the last long or you know, you when you enter a race like that, you're running from Haney Little Town to Harrison Hot Springs, this beautiful, iconic place where you can go and sit in the wellness and feel good. And it's like see the whole way you're running, it's like I gotta get a chance to sit in the hot springs and chill out. And I didn't want anything to bed. It's like shower, food, bed in that order. Never never made it at Hot Springs. I never saw the hot springs.

Larry 32:09

Oh, that's too bad. That's too bad.

Bill 32:10

Yeah, but yeah, that's where I met Steve, and we've been friends ever since, right? We bumped into each other a couple races, and yeah, he's the iconic voice of Iron Man Canada and All Man. Like he's just got a way about announcing that he makes everybody, regardless whether they're first or last, feel like they've just won the world. Yeah. And that in itself is astounding.

Larry 32:36

Yeah. Well, uh, if people are new to the podcast, episodes one, two, and three of the podcast have Steve King. I I spent uh a long time speaking with him just to kick this podcast off because he is the man with all the knowledge when it comes to Ultraman. And uh, we talked a lot about his racing career during those episodes. So go back if you want to know more about the history of Steve King's illustrious career and his century runs and his race walking and everything else that he's done. Uh, please go back and listen to episodes one, two, and three of the first season.

Bill 33:12

Yeah, it'd be worth listening for sure.

Larry 33:15

Hello, listener. I love getting your feedback and suggestions for the podcast. Keep them coming at 515ultraman at gmail.com. For those that want to help me promote the channel, I suggest that you tell a friend to listen to. Word of mouth is a great way for podcasts to get

How To Support The Podcast

Larry 33:35

into it. And if you don't mind publishing your feet, a free way to support the channel is by leaving a five-star rating and review on your podcast app. It's a chance to tell me what you love about the channel and it helps others discover it too. Finally, if you're so incline, you can turn your appreciation for my work by clicking the support button at the bottom of the show note to go to my Find Me a Copy. Thanks for all of your feedback and support. Now back to the show. Um, now I I booked you for this podcast um uh a while out thinking that we would be talking about how you have overcome these shoulder surgeries and and been a finisher at Ultraman Canada. Um, and you know, not every race turns out exactly how you

Two Shoulder Surgeries Meet Ultraman

Larry 34:30

want it to. Can can you tell us a little bit about um what happened with the surgeries? Why, why, it how it held you back from racing previously, and why you were determined to try and get to the starting line this year?

Bill 34:43

Well, um 2024, yeah, no, 2025 March. Um had a load of I was running in a restaurant at the time and had a load of food fall on me and tried to ward it away with my left arm, over centered me, and I landed with my left arm extended in the bottom of a machine and blew my left shoulder. So there's five four tendons in your uh rotator cuff, and then your bicep tendon can be involved. I blew them all. There was nothing left of that shoulder, shoulder glue or arm. I couldn't raise my hand, couldn't raise my arm. Wow. Um, that was repaired May of 2025. And my surgeon, really nice guy, said, You'll be a year to a year and a half before you'll have full use of that shoulder. And I went, Do you know me? Seriously, you have no idea who I am again. So I'm 61 and still cocky. That's kind of who I am. And he went, I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done in the past. This it's it is the most complex drug in the human body, and you will not get it back in seven or eight months, let alone what you think you're gonna get in. So I'll see you in three weeks' time after, and I'll see you three weeks, and we'll see you till you get to to where it's at. Uh well, he was right. I was wrong. Um, anyhow, so that leads me to shoulder number two. So September of 25. And that's if you've never had shoulder surgery when they repair you, they re-root the bicep tendon. Um, I have some plastic in there now to artificial tendons to sort of create that. They did an allograph on me, which is cadaver skin to help the tendons peel and recover and sort of gets reabsorbed into the into the uh joint. Anyhow, the uh September 28th of 25. So May, April, or May, June, July, August, September. Four months. I'm in feeling good. Let's go for a little run. Figure out a little sling that I can hang on to so that I can support the left arm from there. I'm gonna go run a little mountain called Moose Mountain here in Alberta. It's 15k1 direction. Uh about I don't know, 6,500 feet of elevation gain. Get to the top, have a sandwich, start coming back down, and I get to the bottom, and it it sort of has this sort of false. You think you're at the bottom of this little gully that you get into. And when you come around the it's a 90-degree corner, it's blind, you can't see what's coming. So I come around the corner, I ran into a bear. I don't know who is more scared, the bear or Bill. So I run with bear spray, I whip my bear spray out, and it's it's armed. It's I take the safety off when I leave, and I sprayed the bear. And I went off uphill around the bear and away I went. And I got, I don't know, it was probably a kilometer and a half at that point from where my truck was parked. So I got, I don't know, eight, nine hundred meters up this trail and figured maybe I should look in my rear view mirror to see if this big, huge, grisly thing is following me. And thank God it wasn't because I hit a route with my right foot and started to head onto the ground. Yeah. My left shoulder is four months old, so brain's still working. Let's use the right arm. Yeah, gotta protect the protect the left shoulder, so let's use the right arm to take the fall. And as we get to the bottom, let's roll and pretend we're a football player and use your shoulder to continue the fall. And blew the right shoulder. And I hit so hard that I thought I'd broken the shoulder.

Speaker 2 38:56

Oh, yeah.

Bill 38:56

And I probably would have, but then I got metal through my body, I've got you know broken a cavicle and missing a finger um all through racing and doing what I've done over the course of yeah, I raced hard. It's the only way I know how to be. Yeah, anyhow. I got back to my truck, I called my wife, I said, told her what had happened. She said, Are you okay to drive? And I went, Well, I'm 90k from the house. So what would you expect me to do? Well, I can come get you, we can leave your truck there. It's like, no, I'll be okay. I'll just put it on autopilot, go.

Larry 39:29

So you can't put your right shoulder to steer because you just injured it.

Bill 39:33

You're the right shoulder, the left soldier's not really ready to steer. So the truck has auto drive in it. So I just I did, I put it in auto drive and let the truck do majority of the work. Let put my hand to my on the bottom of the steering wheel so that I could it knew that I was still attached to the truck. And headed home. I got home, it's like, she's like, What are you gonna do? It's uh I think I'm okay. I'll just I'll sit and and lick my wounds for a bit. Two o'clock in the morning, the pain was so bad I went to the hospital. I went in and uh I'll never forget the nurse. She says to me, Why are you here? Uh um injured myself running. I fell on my shoulder. She's like, You're not drunk? No, not high? Nope. Um, you don't have sniffles? No. I've injured myself. She said, Can you assign this? And I said, lift my arm up. She's like, You are injured. Yeah. So they got me in. Didn't x-ray not broken. Uh the physician on site said that, well, we got to do an MRI to see what damage has been done, see the MRI. So again, blew four out of the five cannons, right side. Um, two and a half days later, I was going to see my surgeon for this one. So I walked in, it's obviously, how's it going? I said, This one's working really good.

Larry 40:47

This one, however, he said, he's he's like, he's probably not used to having repeat customers as a shoulder surgeon.

Bill 41:01

And and now I'm his coach, right?

Larry 41:04

Oh wow, okay.

Bill 41:05

Yeah. So because he was that's another part. So it was repaired. Um, we'll call it February of this year.

Larry 41:14

Okay.

Bill 41:16

Um, and again, so you can't do anything for six weeks. Your arm is locked down, it's like you're in a calf. Yeah. Um which makes it really interesting to do some simple little tasks like brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, give up your pants. Those are all tasks that people take for granted. Anyhow, um but had learnt, I think, over the course from this one, what I could and what I couldn't do, and what I should and what I shouldn't do. And sharp pain is bad, but uncomfortable pain's not so bad. So I started working this to see if I could get this this uh shoulder ready for the race. I think I got the shoulder to the point where the shoulder itself was okay for the movement of the race, but what I had forgotten, Larry, is that the my neck, uh my traps, my rhomboids, my lats, all those muscles that control half of your uh erective structure, so all your things to keep us nice and erect, um, hadn't been worked in about 15 months. So being in a prone position for five and a half hours, that's how long it took you to get through the 10 kilometer swim. Yeah, so I got to the 5,000 meter mark, and I could no longer in any good swimming position, you know, head so water sitting on the forehead, I could no longer get my right arm out of the water to reach out in front of me and catch. Right. So the only solution for that was to drop my chin to my chest and arch my back so that I artificially had created a different position so I could get my shoulder, my arm forward. I just wam that way for 5,000 meters. So when I got out of the water, I was a mess. I couldn't raise my head, I couldn't lift my arms. Um, my crew she said, You're gonna call it. Went, hell no, get me on my bike, I'll be fine.

Larry 43:22

Well, hold on now. On your crew, you do have the best.

Bill 43:29

Yep.

Larry 43:29

Yeah, I did you did you take advantage of Gail's magic fingers in the transition to get you loosened up?

Bill 43:37

I did not. Right? So uh down on the water, I had Rob Gibson, uh, amazing athlete in his own right, did Ultraman last year. That's how we met. Um, I paced him for the last half of the marathon, um, three months post surgery, which is I was there to help because I couldn't race. So I figured I can't race. Time I wasn't helped. It was my planned A race of the year. And Rob was um having struggling in the marathon, and everybody didn't think he was gonna make it. And I said, uh, F that. Well, this man's gonna make the run if I got to pick him up and carry him. So that's how we met. We sort of became fast friends there. So he was my crew chief and he was at the water, kind of carried me out of the water because literally I was I I was in pretty bad shape. Um and I had a buddy of mine um from Toronto that flew in. Um has no idea what ultra or endurance sports are about, but he thinks he just wanted to come see me hurt. So what's his name? Uh his name's DeGarrett Fulton. Um, hell of a nice guy. Came out, he had a ton of fun to be around, has a raucous laugh and sort of when things are down, he can sort of lighten the mood. That's kind of why I wanted him there. So he was he came. And then I had Rob's wife, um, because they they do things together. And Rhonda had crewed for Rob last year, so she knew what the race was about and kind of what it took. And um we called her the accountant because everything had to be done by the numbers, so nice. She took care and control of my carb load, my food, my fluid intake, um, and basically the mom. Like she just was all of me.

Larry 45:20

And then I have every every good crew needs a needs a numbers person, right?

Bill 45:25

And then I had, without a doubt, in my opinion, the best massage uh physical therapist on the planet. And anybody that she's worked on would say the exact same thing. And that's Gail uh from Australia. So she flew into Canada. I'd like to say to see me and work for me and help me work on me, but she also has a son here in Canada. So I'm just the sidebar. Um, but I said to her, Hey, if you're gonna be in Canada, she comes every two or three years, she doesn't come every year. Yeah, I said, if you're coming again this year, I'd love to have you all, you know, I'll I'll get you here. And she said, absolutely, if you're racing made it, I'll be there. And um unfortunately, I didn't again spend five hours plus doing the left-right arm drill with your arms when you're not a swimmer. And again, that's hard for me to say when I just swam 10K. Yeah, but um my brain wasn't really thinking at that point. I just wanted on terra firma on my bike, and my bike in our well one. And uh the pinaryl line, I just love it. Yes, it's a great bike to ride. But uh Gale becomes very important at about kilometer 21 in the bike ride. Because when I got on the bike and left town, again, you're trying to, you know, it doesn't matter whether you're first or you're last, like I was. You know, your your excitement level comes up. I'm out of the water. Yeah, let's move forward. Um, let's get shoes on. And then I ran into a buddy, I don't know if you know Brad Cochran, another iron tra athlete that I've known for years. He's standing at my bike and he gives me a great big hug. I haven't seen the guy in a decade. No, not he pulled over some. That's a good pick. They went Bill Justice went, Bill Justice, really, he's still alive. That was what Brad said to my crew. Um, so I just went on my bike. And I leave town, and it very came very obvious that I had two options ride with no hands, and I could have my head, I could keep myself erect enough that I could watch where I was going, or put my hands on the bars, but then my head dropped. So then I couldn't watch where I was going. I couldn't see oncoming traffic, I couldn't see stoplights of the ghosts. So I, you know, I'm um leaving town's not flat. Going to no case falls, not flat, climbing up into OK Falls isn't flat. So I did all that, hands off the bars. Um, and if I had to negotiate a corner, I put my hands on the handlebars so I can negotiate the corner better and I had a hand on a break, but it was very short-lived. Um, pulled into the where they would stop for me, and because the first 20K is a no feeding zone, you can't stop. You know, your crews can stop and watch you go by, but they can't help you because the road is. Yeah, the road is so narrow, it's not safe for anybody. It's not safe for your crew, it's not safe for you, it's not safe for oncoming traffic, it's just not safe. Yeah, yeah. Well, rightly so. Um, I came rolling in and I said to everybody, I said, I said, Where's Gail? She's got to fix me. Do what you gotta do, but make me work. She's like, What's wrong? I said, I can't leave, keep my head up. I thought I told her what was going on. And she, man, she worked on the front side of my neck above my collarbones. I thought my head was gonna pop off. It was so painful. It was probably um, and then she dug around on my back and did some things back there, and then she taped me up, and I was probably at that stop for 20 or 25 minutes, and but I wasn't even right. I could put my hands on the handlebars and I could um watch where I was going, and what a turn. And that's what I mean. There's not many people out there that could take a person who's broken and put them back together that quickly with tape like Lego, right? But she just it's insane what the lady can do, and she's the nicest person on the planet. Like she truly is lovely. Um, I don't think she'd say poop if she had two hands full. Like, she's just she's just that kind of person, right? Yeah, again, very, very fortunate to call her a friend um and to have her on my crew. Um so they glued me together and I sort of rolled down to a Soyuz and climb Richter and got to the other side of Richter, and um, I call them the seven bitches. I'm sorry if that's not not on color, but there's seven rock and rollers when you go on the other side of Richter. And and the reason they're ugly is because you just get up one and then you have to pedal, and you get to the top, and there's not enough down to get to the top of the next one. So there's seven of those. And I got to I don't know, the third one, I think. And I said, looked at my watch and going, we're doing this many minutes for 5k. I've got nine 5k's left. Um, I'm gonna be short by half an hour. Um, today's not the day, guys. I'm just gonna I'm gonna call it right. There's no point in injuring myself. There's no point. I want to be able to do this until I'm 90. Um, maybe not ultra man, but I don't I want to be able to get out and tow the line at a 5k, a 10k, an Olympic distance race. I want to be able to go support and help other athletes. Um, I want to be able to coach. And I was at the point where it's like, if I continue, um, because of how I'm feeling, there's always the chance that I'm gonna hit something on the road, hit a speed wobble, and not have the acumen or the control, the bike that I have to have at 45 or 50 kilometers an hour going downhill and I'm gonna hurt myself. So I called it. Um, I think it was a wise move. It's not something I I wanted to do. Um, that being said and done, I got off my bike and stopped my Garmin because everybody knows if you can't stop your Garmin, it's on the strava, and then it's if you know the saying goes, it's not on the strava, it didn't happen. Um anyhow, I stopped my Garmin and I took a look at my body battery Larry, and it was at negative eight. I didn't think it could go to negative eight. There it was.

Speaker 2 51:37

Yeah.

Bill 51:38

Um and the start of the day at 100. So I gave it everything I had. Um you gave it 108%. 108%. And I got the next morning and got on my bike ready for day two with a body battery of 10.

Larry 51:53

Yeah, because that's because that's that's one of the you know, one of the things about uh 515 racing is that you know you've paid for three days of racing, and just because you weren't able to finish day one in the 12-hour cutoff, um you're welcomed back to be a participant and continue on on the course um and and have as much fun as you as you want along

Day Two The Wall And Winds

Larry 52:20

the way. And uh, so you decide to come back and start day two.

Bill 52:24

Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't miss uh um day two for for the world. Day two's, you know, I've done the I've done the first 140k probably 150 times in my life, right? I lived in Kelowna for 30 years. I I as you said earlier, I've done 14 Iron Man Canadas. Um, it's part of the Iron Man um uh original course, so it's a pretty iconic ride. Um so I knew that, but day two, I think I've only ridden a half a dozen times in my career of riding in that area. So I and I know the race course exceedingly well. I really wanted to you know hit the wall and crush down Carameus and ride out to you know Bromley Rock and go.

Larry 53:08

But when you sorry, when you say hit the wall for people that haven't raced in Canada, you didn't mean you were trying to uh hit a physical wall uh and push yourself too hard. It is it is part of the course.

Bill 53:20

Yeah, I guess if you describe the course, you turn on this little little road called Green Lake Road, and there's a sign there that says C later ranch 5K. Now see later ranch, you're at I'll just I don't know what the exact numbers are, but see later, you're at a thousand feet above sea level, and see later ranch is at 1900. So in 5K, you're gonna go up 900 feet. Doesn't sound so bad, but the first three of that 5k is just this nice slow, gentle two and a half percent climb with some descents in it. You know, you can roll along pretty easily at 30 kilometers an hour, you're not breaking a sweat, eating, fueling, whatever. And this is again, this is a no-feed zone. And then you hit a sign that says Clay Wrench 2K and it starts, and it pitches pretty quick to 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 21, 22, and you're at the top of the wall. It's called the wall for a reason. If you take a look at any any Garmin, any Strava Link, I don't care how fast you ride it, your line is sheer vertical. It looks like you've just run into a wall. Yeah. Um now at about 1k to go, there's a sign that says almost there. Now did you did you kick that as you went by? I I love the wall. I do. I I like to climb. I'm a little guy and I'm I like to think I'm pretty strong. I love climbing.

Speaker 2 54:54

Yeah.

Bill 54:55

And I got to there, and it's like, all right, now she's gonna begin. And I it goes real quickly from 12 to 1821. So you come around the corner and you can see where the finish of the wall is, like you can see C Lair Ranch winery, there's a little bar on the right, and I could see pink. That's all I could see. I could see people running around in pink. Now, if you've been on Facebook, you'll see the picture of what I'm about to describe. If you haven't been on Facebook, find Steve King on Facebook and go take a look at the picture because it's worth the giggle.

Speaker 2 55:26

Yeah.

Bill 55:27

I knew it was my crew and I knew they'd done something odd because that's the kind of humans they are, and I sort of disappeared into this premises that is the 18 to 22 percent, because it's so steep and so sharp that you you lose the where the finish area is. And when I broke the top, it and breaking the top, it goes from 22 down back down to 14. It's not like it goes flat, it's still 14% up. And I took a glance at the top of my glasses, because I need glasses to wear, so I have prescription sunglasses, and looked took the glass out of the top, so I couldn't really see them, but I knew they were in pink skirts. That's all I knew. And I knew if I looked up, I was gonna be laughing so hard that I fall, I'd fall over. So I didn't I didn't look up until I got to them. And they had put on pink Mickey Mouse ears. I had two guys, two gals. They're wearing prink pink jawbrush and pink skirts and pink knee-high socks. Now you've you've written 100k. If that doesn't get you started to go, okay, these people are here for a good time, they're not really here for you. Then you know not much does, but yeah, yeah. So they they had a whole umbrella set up up there for me and snacks and goodies, and let me stay for about a minute and a half. Said, okay, we'll see you in 10k. And then they took off. I mean, it's just uh how it goes, right?

Larry 56:47

Yeah, and that's one of the places that's one of the places where Steve King sets up on the course and he announces you as you're going by.

Bill 56:56

And you can hear him um from about the kilometer mark because he he has this unique ability. And if you've never heard Steve um call a race, first off, the guy's men's, so he's got a melon on the size of you know, brain pad better than most, but he never forgets anything. And when I you know when you when you fill out your entry form, um and like you, you they want some history of what you've done. And then about a month outside of the race, they send you this race announcer form, and they said, please put some things down so Steve has something to talk about. I just wrote in Steve knows more about me and everybody that's racing this race than they've even remember. Because the guy forgets nothing. Yeah. So he can babble on about you for 20 minutes if he wants to. So I heard Steve calling me from about a kilometer out. I knew I knew he was there, and he's there. It's a great place for everybody because you can see everybody coming. You watch them disappear. Um, and this sort of this nice spot, he's a little shady spot where he parks his his van and sits on the back of his van and calls the race. And you would think that he is talking to 10,000 people, not the 10 people that are there.

Larry 58:08

Yeah. Um, or sometimes zero people that are there.

Bill 58:12

Correct. Yeah, when you so when you go down, there's this little um uh fruit stand, whatever, and he's sitting on uh on the cement embotments that are along the road, and he's sitting there yakking. It's like, hi, Steve, bye. You know, and you buy him just you know in a blink. Yeah, and then he's he's 10k from a so use, and then he's still sitting there when you come back the other direction. It's crazy. Um then you leave the wall and you go through the through the meadows, you got another pretty significant climb, ran into another bear. Um this guy was just a little bock bear this time, so he's just sitting there eating berries on the side of the road, standing upright, trying to get on. And then you get to Princeton, and you got another fairly significant climb. It's I know 10% as you head out to Allison Lake. And this year, coming back from Allison Lake, and again, that's you know, it's a two-hour ride out, or can be a two-hour ride out, um, because uphill the whole way, but it's usually about a 25 minutes back, 15 or 20 minutes back because you've you've been you've been climbing so sweet, it's the highest point on the entire course at Allison Lake, and usually guys are coming back into town at 70 or 80 kilometers per hour. And this year, no, we got a headwind coming back into town, so you're you know, you're back down to 30 or 35 kilometers per hour pedaling to try and keep moving forward. Um, and that's the end of day two. You get uh Princeton to the uh skinny rink and stop, and you're done day two. So now you've got you know, day one, 140k ride, 10k swim, day two, 276 um in the tank, and you just gotta get ready for this little run the next day. Little double marathon, double marathon, not much, which I didn't get a chance to do this year.

Larry 59:59

Yeah. So so let's uh what what happened where you you didn't do the day three? Did you decide being a a participant and doing that was not gonna be for you?

Bill 1:00:12

No, I really wanted to do it. Um of course I've got I've got my magic weapon, my secret weapon, Gail would have put me back together, no problem. And I didn't think I'd done enough damage on the bike. Like I hadn't pushed hard enough on the bike that I was that I wouldn't be able to run day two or

Hotel Chaos And Skipping Day Three

Bill 1:00:30

run, walk, run, walk, walk, walk, walk, run day two. Right. Day three. Um day three, pardon me. But uh got to my hotel room and my reservation had been canceled. And we booked in in um April. Um and that's a whole kerfuffle I don't really want to get into on air because uh um yeah, I just don't think it's right to air it the way it ha the way it went down. Suffice it to say that I had I had an option. There was one uh five people in my crew, uh a couple, a gal from Australia, and my buddy, and there was one room available in town with a king bed. And um my crew said, you know, will you and Gail stay? She can work on you, and we'll drive back and drive out in the morning. And I said to my crew, we started this as a crew, we're gonna finish it as a crew. Plus, I don't think her husband or my wife would really like us sleeping in the same bed. So um, and so then the next um thought for my crew was, and they were they really want me to run, they knew I wanted to run. They said, Well, we'll we'll get back to to Penticton to the Airbnb that we'd booked, and you know, we'll get you massaged, sorted, fed, showered, get your gear together and load the truck, uh, unload the truck, unload the bike and everything, and then we'll we'll drive back in the morning for the race start. And I said to them, I'm not interested in being folded in half for two hours to get back to the Airbnb, to get up at three to eat, digest, have your nerves poop, um, have a pee, eat some more, um, get a warm-up massage from Gail to get back in the truck to drive two bar two hours back to the race start um at nine degrees centigrade to run 84 kilometers. Just wasn't interested. So I called right then and there. I said, you know, we're gonna go back out, we're gonna support, we're gonna need to cheer on, but I'm not gonna run. It's not fair um to ask me to do that. Um and it's not fair uh that it happened that way. So it was a little bit of a downer. That being said and done, um, I didn't want the other athletes to feel like um I'd abandoned them or the race. So we you know got up. They started at seven valves. Uh we got up at I think I woke up at five. Um we went down, had breakfast, and then headed out of the course uh to the halfway point, and then supported the athletes as they came in to the finish line. So and got a chance to cheer them on and support them. And and uh I think that was I think that was the right move. So that's why I didn't run day three.

Larry 1:03:16

Well, um you you have your own coaching business as well, Epic 365. What what would Coach Bill say to Athlete Bill about how your race went? What what advice would you would you be passing on to that athlete?

Bill 1:03:34

Don't swim. Um it's that old adage, hey doctor, heal thyself. Um I would tell anybody that was gonna do what I did not to do it. I would say I would advise them that, you know, you're just not ready um physically to do the swim. I listen, I was fine to do the the cycle and the run. I you know, I I rode probably 300 and let's call it 380k in two days. Um I got back here to Calvary three days later and I went for a hundred K ride on my bike. And I rode today, uh jammed up a couple hills here in town like I had done nothing. Um, so that's a testament to the fitness level I I have. My heart, my lungs, my lower legs are in great shape. Um the shoulders and the back and the neck and the traps were not ready for the effort. Um, I think what probably got me through it all was five decades of putting my head down and just getting after it. Right. Um, if I didn't have that experience, I probably wouldn't have not have gotten out of the water. But, you know, when you've got in decades of this is gonna hurt, this is gonna be uncomfortable, and you need to figure out constantly be doing some self-checks to sure and adjusting things to make sure that you can continue to move forward, which is what I did. Yeah. Um but somebody who's you know new to sport, um, ultras, I would have definitely said, yeah, don't do it. Um, but Coach Bill would also tell client Bill that he's pretty proud of what he did.

Speaker 2 1:05:13

Yeah.

Larry 1:05:16

Yeah.

Bill 1:05:17

Right.

Larry 1:05:17

It's um and and how about those grandkids? Are they proud of what Coach Bill and Athlete Bill were able to pull off?

Bill 1:05:25

Oh yeah. My my oldest grandson is like, he just said, so did a piston break or did a chain break? Like what happened? Right? Is that a cyborg? If you take a look at my arm, I don't know if you can see it. I don't know if you can, I don't know if I don't know if you right, but my arm is all gears and machine things. There's some um jet engine stuff on there, and I've got chain, I've got links on my arm. Um, and there's six blue chain links, and there's three pink chain links for all my grandkids. Oh, nice. So they are the driving force. Of they're my light. They see things the way we forgotten to look at them, you know? Like a two-year-old sees leaf for what leaf is, whereas we just see this as a debris that we're gonna blow off our garage driveway. Um they constantly remind me that life is worth living. And I live through sport. I really do. It's it's how I um breathe.

Larry 1:06:27

Yeah. Well I think that we we we've missed one of the major things that has been a part of your life for for a while now from back in 2016. Now we mentioned it in the opening, and I I think it's something we need to discuss because it's it's a pretty big deal. Um you you were the person who brought

How Parkrun Took Off In Canada

Larry 1:06:50

Parkrun to Canada, the very first Parkrun back in 2016, which has now, as I said in the opening, um grown up to 64 different events around Canada. Tell me tell me about um how you got involved with Parkrun and why you wanted to bring it to Canada and how you were able to uh pull this off. And and do you have any connection to its running these days?

Bill 1:07:14

Yeah, so that was uh that was a long journey. So it started in 2016, but for me it started in 2014. Um I have a friend of mine, her name's Therese. Uh we were in the military together. So when she retired, she moved to England. Um, she's a school teacher or a now retired school teacher. And she called me up one day out of nowhere and said, Hey, you know, you need to get parkrun to Canada. And I went, what's a parkrun? It's like it's running a park, it's three five times 5K. And I said to her, Do you have any 5k star in Canada? Like, seriously? What's so special about this? So she kind of explained it to me, and I uh took a long hard look at it. So I called or emailed Parkrun Global. And if you don't nobody knows, then probably your audio, some of your audience will, some of your audience won't, so I'll try to explain. There's a guy by name Hewitt that was a brilliant 5k guy. He was a 14 in a 5K guy, and he got injured. So he decided rather than sit in the sidelines and feel sorry for himself while he was repairing from his fairly serious injury, that he would go down to the park and he would time his mates um through a 5k event, um, and then post them on a simple Google spreadsheet every week while he was healing. And that's how it started. And that was happening in Bushy Park. Um, and now Bushy Park every weekend has north of 3,200 runners come in every every week. Um so when you sign in and become a member of Parkrun, um you it issues you a unique barcode with barcode technology. Every barcode is unique. My barcode is uh 2,600,999. So I got the first barcode issued in Canada. Um, and everything from that goes forward. We're now issuing barcodes in the 8 million marks. That tells you how many people have registered for parkrun in the last 10 years. Yeah. Uh we're almost at 9 million now. Registered parkrun runners. Um, I had to get the mayor involved in Kelowna, had to talk to the council members to say, hey, this is good for the city. Um, had a song on that. And we got the first one kicked off August 20th of 2016 with 105 runners. That's awesome. Um, and it's uh and then the next one was Calgary and then Vancouver and then Winnipeg, and it slowly has grown uh organically. Because what happens is somebody's comes to Kelowna and as a runner is looking for something to do, and somebody says, Hey, when you're in Kelowna, go find Parkrun, they give them the site and they get on. And what it does, Larry, is it makes people accountable if you're in a community. Um, because if you know, if I say to you, hey man, let's go do this, let's go do parkrun, and we go do parkrun, and then I say, Hey, let's go do it again next week, and you don't show up. The next time I see you, it's like, where were you?

Speaker 2 1:10:22

Yeah.

unknown 1:10:22

Right.

Bill 1:10:23

So it keeps people accountable. Um, friendships are born, and we have now got a couple guys that are getting close to 500 parkrun friends, so they haven't really missed the weekend, um, which is think about doing 505Ks for the course of 10 years. There's always two special days. We do one on uh Christmas Day, and we do one on Canada Day. Those are the two specials that we do. And we have had people travel to do parkruns, and people do parkrun bingo. Oh, yeah, because every parkrun has it starts with different letters, so people will go around and travel around to do you know parkruns with the start with a B and a C and the D. And then we have had one guy, you're only allowed to do one parkrun a weekend. Uh so we had a guy in New Zealand do the parkrun in New Zealand and then get in a plane, fly to Vancouver, fly into Klona and do parkrun and clones. He could do two in one weekend, but they're different time zones, so he would do them on the same day. Yeah. So it's it is a phenomenon itself to have eight million plus people go out on a Saturday, you know, and they're not always all there, but the potential is that you could have eight million people cross a 5K finish line somewhere on the planet is astounding. Um pleased been a part of it. I I um I've been asked to put another one on here in Calgary, and um I volunteered for six years straight every weekend. Wind, rain, snow, weather. Um it's a lovely event. I'm good. Yeah, yeah.

Larry 1:12:05

I'm proud of that that is another thing about Parkrun is there's generally a group of volunteers. It's not just one person out there, it's you know 10, 12 people playing out the course, you know, helping with the timing, meeting new people, telling them how to run that particular course. So it is a big community event as well.

Bill 1:12:26

Yeah, it's it's it so it creates friends within that circle as well. It's not always the same volunteers. We we have a sign-up sheet. Um, it's electronic now. Back when I started it, it was on pen and paper. It's like people cross my slides, hey, what are you doing next weekend? You gonna run or do you want help? Yeah, right. Um, you've parkruns uh it's a global phenomenon. It's also really well put together, and and they have lots of major corporate sponsors. You know, you you volunteer 25 times to get a purple t-shirt that they send it to you free. And it says, you know, parkrun volunteer 25. You do 50, you get a t-shirt, you do 100, you get a t-shirt, you do 250, you get a t-shirt. 500, you get a t-shirt. Now, they're all different colors. So you go to a park run and you can walk into a park run in Ireland, and you'll see people in green shirts and blue shirts and red shirts, and these kind of like, wow, man, you've done 500 park runs? Like, seriously? Or should be but you know, the simple little things, and it may sound silly, but we have a guy by the name of Rory Bass, who's an ultra uh I know Rory, yeah. Oh, right, you know Rory. Yeah, so Rory and his lady went to um watch the Isle of Man races overseas, uh, motor side races. And while they were there, Rory found himself a parkrun to go do a park run over in on Ireland. So, not something that he would have done when he was doing Ultraman, going, hey, when I go traveling, I'm gonna go find a parkrun I can do for free. So there's a lot of subtle things that have happened because parkruns here in Canada. And again, I'm I'm exceedingly pleased and proud to be a part of it. Um, I've helped here in Calgary, go volunteer. Um, I've run it a couple times. Um, do I want to get another one going here in Calgary? No, they're a lot. It's a lot of work for the guys. There it's called the person that starts the new park run is called an instigator. Okay, yeah, right, because you need to get your community on side. You have to find volunteers, you guys set your course. There's a bunch of paper has to happen. And I I am now way more satisfied um racing again, spending time with my grandkids, and trying to figure out what I'm gonna do the following year and maybe start another event. Who knows?

Larry 1:14:49

Well, I I know that before you said that um one of your bucket list

Bucket List Goals And Final Challenge

Larry 1:14:55

things is to go run the bushy park park run. And you've also said that comrades, one of the things that Steve King has done, uh is is on your bucket list. So are those still on your list? What what are your what are your bucket list items now? What are your targets? What can we expect?

Bill 1:15:13

Comrades is still on my bucket list, and um seriously playing with Oz for next year, um, if they'll let me in. I'm quite sure that um if I'd asked uh if I asked nicely, uh Ultraman Oz is on the bucket list. There's a little race in um Scotland called The Monster, which I would kind of like to go do. Um considering I've spun with Yogo Pogo, I figure it's only safe if I should go swim with her cousin Nessie and Loch Ness. And that's another ultra kind of stage race. It's a 5k swim, a thousandk bike, and a and a 50k run. Um you know, I I still like to be able to go down and do uh drag my butt down to do uh 10k down in the Antarctic, which would be the old continent I haven't run on yet.

Larry 1:16:04

Okay.

Bill 1:16:05

So those are those are bucketless stuff. Um, you know, I'd like to get to the point where I've got a hundred mannerathons on the belt and I'm about eight short. So again, I got I've got uh a few years to get you know eight more menathons in.

Larry 1:16:21

Do you do you know which one would be a hundred? Which one would you make a hundred?

Bill 1:16:25

Um, I would probably do I would try and do one of the majors of a hundred. I'd try and get into Chicago or uh London, I think would be one of the two that I would choose to do the 100 in. Um, but you you have to you have to uh qualify to get to those, and then you gotta be lucky enough to get in. Right. Because not everybody who qualifies gets in. Maybe as you're again, I haven't looked at I think I have to run a 340 at my age, which is I'm well within that capability right now. So I don't think it's gonna be a shore, but yeah, you know, if you do two a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, that's still four years away. And who knows, you know, four years when you're a young fellow like me can be a long time. Uh I just want to stay healthy. Right. I've had a couple years of just ugly. I just want to stay nice and healthy and have some fun. That's it's that simple for me.

Larry 1:17:22

Yeah, yeah. And and I I know for you also giving back is is a big part of as we've learned through creating Parkrun and and you know your role in you know being a part of the OHANA and all of that. You've you've given for your country and your military service. And uh I think you've really shown us and and your grandchildren, grandchildren what some true grit looks like. Uh, it doesn't matter that you're as young as you are. Um, so no matter what the injuries are, the setbacks, the DNFs, I know I know you're gonna keep moving forward. Uh so congratulations on getting to that starting line and and giving it a really fair run this year at Ultraman Canada. Um, I'm sure you'll get into another 515 race. And and and when you get shoulders working, get to the finish line and and and have all that as as well. So thank you very much for sharing your stories today and and telling us about some of your new unique races. Um, and uh it's it's much appreciated.

Bill 1:18:27

Absolutely. Thanks, Larry. Take care.

Larry 1:18:30

And if you want to if you want to honor Bill, um go out this Saturday and find a park run in your community and take part.