We Are Superman

Michael O’Brien had one of those life-changing, near catastrophic events in 2001. He was struck by a car while riding his bike, resulting in multiple, possibly lethal, serious injuries. The doctors’ prognoses for how his future life would look were grim. Obviously, he had the option of accepting these and leading a life just scraping by. One of the revelations that someone provided him was that he...

Climb all 122 peaks in the Rocky Mountains, and do it in less than 40 days. That’s 58 Colorado 14ers, 37 Wyoming 13ers, and 27 Montana 12ers, many with backcountry treks just to get to their trailheads. That’s averaging more than three peaks a day, every day, for almost six weeks. The equivalent of more than 26 marathons in length and 318,000 feet of elevation gain, or sea level to the top of Mt....

We have talked a few times to organ transplant recipients, but today we’ve got a great conversation with a kidney donor. I met Mike Kennedy while I was volunteering in June at the Leadville Heavy Half and Marathon. He had come out from Bethlehem PA, and as we got to talking, I found out about his organ donation. As you heard me describe earlier, it was a sloppy, snowy, muddy epic sort of weather d...

We’re making another trip Down Under, this time to Wellington, New Zealand and talking with an expert in your physical, psychological, and digestive well-being with the goal of giving his clients better energy, mobility, purpose, gut health, mental sharpness, confidence, workout effectiveness, and life balance. His name is Olly Wood, and his understanding of the big picture led him to start the Bo...

When I heard about Dr. John Lewis, I was mesmerized by how committed he is to healthy living and helping others enjoy their best lives, too. But what cinched it for me is that he has done the research himself through dozens of studies as a professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine that demonstrate the links between proper nutrition, exercise, and dietary supplementation to optimum he...

This is part 2 of my chat with one of the legends of high school basketball coaching not just in Colorado, but in the country, Dick Katte. I hope you had a chance to listen to part 1; if not, please catch that first. Coach Katte began coaching basketball and teaching math at Denver Christian High School in 1960, becoming the head coach in 1964. He finished with a record of 876-233, which until sur...

We are bringing you a special treat in this episode, a sit-down chat with one of the legends of high school basketball coaching not just in Colorado, but in the country. Dick Katte began coaching basketball and teaching math at Denver Christian High School in 1960, becoming the head coach in 1964. He finished with a record of 876-233, which until this past season represented the most wins ever for...

Baseball hero and color barrier-breaker Jackie Robinson once said, "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." As coaches, we make impacts on others' lives every day, sometimes in large ways and at other times in very low-key ways. This year I have had one standout opportunity to do so. When Nate, a young man I coached, was in need of a place to live when h...

One more in our series of standout performers at the Colorado High School State Championship meet, we are heading out to the farm, literally. I happened to be hanging around the finish line there talking to Matt Kleve, whose son Max was competing in sprint events for Holyoke High School, a school of about 250 students way out on the Eastern Plains of Colorado not far from the Nebraska line. Genera...

Continuing with our series of standout performers at the Colorado High School State Championship meet, our state has been known for many years as a mecca for distance running, and it seems like the pace of records falling the past few years has accelerated. In fact, despite our elevation, some of the fastest times in the country this year have been run right here at mile-high.  One of those is the...

The Leadville Marathon and Heavy Half had rain, wind, mud, and even on June 17, snow!  The race organizers had to modify the course because the top of 13,185' Mosquito Pass was unattainable, but many runners thought this made the race even tougher.  It was a mudfest extraordinaire!  Kudos to the men and women of Team Leadville whose runners not only successfully completed the races, but raise...

This is the first of a series episodes chatting with some athletes with notable performances at the recent 2023 Colorado State High School Track Championships. We love to find inspiring comebacks on the WASP, and this young man is right there. Brandon Hills of Vista Ridge H.S. in Colorado Springs was already a dedicated track and football athlete when he found himself in the wrong place at the wro...

In this episode we re-visit with my favorite running nomad, Tyler Andrews, who is rarely stationary, infrequently in the same locale for any length of time. We last chatted on the WASP in episode 129 in May, 2021. I caught up with Tyler in a rare settled-down moment in Albuquerque. Tyler has a penchant for attempting and setting FKTs, fastest-known times, on both well-known and less-popular routes...

David used to give out rubber bracelets, one of which I still wear, that say “Happiness Warrior.”  This episode’s guest, Rob Dubin, should probably also be called a happiness warrior. Rob had already chosen a career that made him happy making outdoors-themed films, getting to kayak, heli-ski, and climb mountains for work. Long before he started a business teaching people how to be happy, Rob, his...

Imagine crashing into a wall in your car while traveling at 30 mph. That could certainly leave some ugly marks. Let’s take away the seat belts and airbags and imagine careening down a hill on a bike or on skis and hitting an object at that same speed. That will probably hurt quite a bit, perhaps a trip to the hospital. Now imagine skydiving and smacking into the side of an immovable building. Jaso...

This episode is a departure from the athletic world, but I think it is nonetheless a great comeback story worthy of sharing. I met Tomas Marin at several Wheat Ridge CO Chamber of Commerce leads group meetings, and while chatting with him over coffee I learned about his remarkable story. Tomas fell into gang life on the streets of Denver in his early teens, and not long after participated in his f...

It's the height of track season and we are starting to see the action heating up even if the temperatures outside aren’t quite there yet here in Colorado. I’m actually pretty jealous of the following guest, Andrew Simmons, the owner and founder of Peak Performance Running in Golden CO. It is a club for high school and middle school runners, and is probably similar in many respects to others a...

This is a very cool Power Play. I’ve been telling you since the fall about my work with Ixcela to use their nutritional testing and counseling to counter the breathing and energy issues I had been experiencing right from the beginning of my runs. I started with them with a simple at-home blood test that I mailed back. They analyzed 11 metabolites, and my awesome Ixcela certified nutritionist Shelb...

Today I bring back into the Hive one of my favorite people from the Leadville 10 Warriors group, Ed Barnette.  Ed’s backstory is that he was once a rather hefty guy, a smoker and drinker, too.  He probably consumed more Buffalo Wild Wings than any person on the planet. Ed had a random meeting with David and felt compelled to tell him that David would never see him that large again, and David told...

Here we have part two of our lively conversation with Creigh Kelley, someone who is synonymous with running in Denver and well beyond. Starting a few years before I arrived in the Mile High City more than 40 years ago, this graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Vietnam War Army veteran (where he was awarded two Bronze Stars), Colorado Running Hall of Famer, and Road Race Management Lifetime Ach...

Creigh Kelley is synonymous with running in Denver and well beyond. Starting a few years before I arrived in the Mile High City more than 40 years ago, this graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Vietnam War Army veteran (where he was awarded two Bronze Stars), Colorado Running Hall of Famer, and Road Race Management Lifetime Achievement Award recipient has directed more than 1000 races through...

We have presented WASP episodes recorded from places like Nepal, Australia, and the U.K., now we’ll add a new one, Israel. This is a very uplifting episode with author Bracha Goetz. Bracha overcame disordered eating as a young woman and used that victorious experience to discover meaning in life. This led her to learn from a rabbi about the Pleasure Ladder, which focuses more on the spiritual plea...

Jason Bahamundi is a New York-born marketing professor and business owner who is not afraid to tackle audacious challenges. Whether it was moving west to Arizona, getting sober, changing over to eating vegetarian, starting a new business, or diving into the endurance world. A mentor gave him a philosophy to “fail fast.” In other words, trying really hard things and risk falling on your face. He’s...

We have a new visit with a longtime friend of the WASP, Simone Brick. Listeners might recall Simone appearing with David and telling her powerful story of remarkably changing from a teenager with disordered eating, weight issues, and being institutionalized with severe depression, to becoming one of the most dynamic trail runners in Australia with one of the sunniest dispositions you’ll ever encou...

I hope you enjoyed last week’s chat with Don Reichelt, who has been crushing it in the ultramarathon world. Please go back and check it out if you haven’t caught it yet. We talked about Don’s ups and downs running at the Leadville Trail 100, about his relationship to David and David’s continued influence on him to this day, about learning the process to taking big jumps in his running abilities, t...