Coach Polly Mertens: 0:23

Hey superstars, welcome back Polly here with the Everyday Awesome Project.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 0:27

Hey, beautiful human Sam Pruitt here and we have some special guests Woo-hoo. Who are we talking to? I want to introduce some amazing human beings. They are our first official power couple of the Everyday Awesome Project. We have Josh and Shan, and I’m going to read a little bit about their bios so you can get to know them. Shan Riggs is a good friend of mine. We met at the RunningUSA Conference for both in the same industry. He is a sponsorship and social media strategist. We also spent quite a bit of time together running 1,000 miles in Australia on a four-person relay. Team USA for mental health in 2021.

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:05

Yes, that was not 100. That was 1,000. You just heard her say 1,000.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:09

Yeah, well, on a relay sounds so reasonable, shan, wasn’t it? Yeah, we had a good time. In 2020, shan ran across America, as in the United States of America, 3,255 miles, wow. In 2021, the Erie Canal Run and Bike with Josh and Shan together. I was wondering if that was your first date, but we’ll get into that later. Additionally, you guys did in 2022, a 3,000-mile run and bike together on the East Coast Greenway expedition. That was from Key West to Canada oh, my goodness, where you proposed at the end.

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:52

I love this story already.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:54

I love it In 2023, 1,900 miles on the Pacific Coast expedition, running and biking together, including the FKT on that. Apparently, you’re a big runner, dude. I mean it might be your thing at this point, yeah. But, it’s your thing, lucky you found this beautiful partner. Let’s talk about Josh a little bit, shall we? Adventure cyclist runner, biochemist and mathematical modeling director in the pharma industry Whoa.

Coach Polly Mertens: 2:28

I don’t even know what that is. I don’t know what it is, but yeah, smart, nobody knows.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 2:33

Nobody knows. And a mom and a mom and a mom Also doing all these Shan and Shan and Shan against together, I would give you the best partner award. Oh yes, I’m not sure how Shan feels about that, but I’m going to go ahead and do that now. Yes, so let’s get this party started by learning a little bit about how you guys met.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 2:56

No. We met on the dating app.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 3:00

We met on a dating app.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 3:02

We met on the dating app and my qualifications for going on a date with the person needed to be athletic and have an advanced degree, which is kind of considered on my part because I don’t have an advanced degree.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 3:16

Oh my god, that’s hilarious.

Shan Riggs: 3:19

His profile said ultra runner, marketing and science nerd, and that was it. And we were like, oh, it kind of says a lot right there in those few words.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 3:31

And I mean, those are some really sexy attributes on both sides.

Shan Riggs: 3:34

Yeah, yeah, sign me up.

Coach Polly Mertens: 3:35

I hope so. Sign me up. And where was the first date? I’m just curious, was it running, was it cycling, was it doing some adventure, or just we went?

Shan Riggs: 3:44

dinner. Yeah, we did, I did run home, see. I brought a bag and I ran home.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 3:53

Yeah, that’s awesome. Oh my gosh, but you didn’t run to the date.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 3:59

I walked. I didn’t want to be sweaty, I was just going to say I mean we got to draw the line somewhere here.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 4:03

A little bit of you know oh my God, that’s fantastic, all right, so we’d like to hear a little bit about your backgrounds and, in particular, how you guys ended up coming together. So who are you to individually, you know, coming to this beautiful partnership and then, as you met, what that might look like. So who wants to go first?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 4:25

I’m going to start.

Shan Riggs: 4:26

Yeah, yeah OK.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 4:29

So, as it says, sam, like I’m a bunch of consultants, this is my day job, but I’m mostly known for running really long distances to raise money and awareness for charity. So I sort of combine my day job, my passion for ultra running, to do these crazy runs where we go a long way and use that as a platform to shine a light on different charities, from the medals for metal to the East Coast Greenway and a whole bunch of others too.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 5:02

Well, where’d you grow up? Because you didn’t just randomly start being an ultra runner.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 5:08

I grew up on a farm in Indiana and then I’ve lived all over the place lived in Chicago, lived in the West Coast several times, moved to Connecticut actually to work with the Heart for Marathon Foundation, which was one of my consulting clients, and so that’s what brought me to Connecticut, where we met a few years ago now, several years ago now.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 5:32

Awesome, awesome. So farm life, so work ethic is definitely in your blood. Yeah, you know how to work, dude.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 5:39

Yeah, when I first learned about ultramarathons I thought you know, it just sounds like you just work hard all day.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 5:48

I’m like well nothing new here, probably do that. Did you take running in school like on a team sport or anything?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 5:57

I wasn’t in track in cross country, although I wasn’t extremely good. I think the best ever place was third in high school because there’s two guys in my team that were faster than me, so that was about the best ever. The first race ever won was a 24 hour race in San Francisco and I said, oh wow, if it’s far enough and you have to do it long enough, then suddenly I could be competitive.

Coach Polly Mertens: 6:23

You’re the distance endurance runner, right, that’s like me.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 6:26

I can’t run the short sprints or whatever, but you know, over time I can catch up right, I tell people if it’s far and flat and if there’s not too many rocks and roots in the way I can go in one.

Coach Polly Mertens: 6:37

I’m your guy. I’m lonely for a really long time.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 6:41

I also know you were a competitive waterskiyer.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 6:45

Yeah, so I was in my fort in college, so I did my family.

Shan Riggs: 6:49

I grew up waterskiing.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 6:50

My family had a ski show that toured around the Midwest when I was a kid and then I think it’s taken in three events being in college, so fun fact.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 6:59

Definitely some athletic blood going on right Some niche sports? Yeah, some niche sports, exactly, exactly. All right, josh, you’re up. Tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

Shan Riggs: 7:11

Let’s see, I grew up in the military. My father was in the Air Force, so we lived in England, in Florida. I spent most of my growing up years in New Hampshire and ended up in Connecticut once he retired. So I’ve been in Connecticut for a long time 30 years, I guess.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 7:34

Let’s see.

Shan Riggs: 7:36

As far as activities, I’m not. I don’t win races, I don’t run across the country, but I do like to ride my bike and run a lot. Also, I do a lot of mountain biking and mountain bike races, in Vermont mostly and some in the local area. So, meeting Shan and kind of easily understood what drove him, and in fact, the first big mountain bike race that I did was the Vermont 50. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but it’s also an ultra running race and I signed up for it and showed up and was like people are running now. This is so crazy.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 8:23

I think people take their bicycles on a mountain and just mind blowing to me. I hardly stay on the road when I try to ride a bicycle, so just a few times. It’s always ugly.

Shan Riggs: 8:38

No, it’s been fun yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 8:40

I’m going to be going off the track Tim crashing.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 8:43

Tim crashing is a lot of fun to watch.

Shan Riggs: 8:45

Everyone does that the first couple of times. Mountain biking is fine. Did you grow up biking? I didn’t know.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 8:52

Oh, wow.

Shan Riggs: 8:54

So I didn’t do any competitive forts, or really not much growing up. After, I guess maybe in college, I started to do a little bit of biking and then kind of just kept going. Started with mountain biking, okay, and then, you know, mixed in the road biking as well.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 9:11

Okay, and you’ve got a couple cans also. I guess they’re technically young adults.

Shan Riggs: 9:17

Yes, and I’m a 21-year-old and a 17-year-old two boys, so they keep me active like very busy. Keep up with them, yeah.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 9:29

Exactly. That’s probably maybe part of what fuels the lifestyle a little bit. Or are they more like modeling after you, because they have to keep up with you now?

Shan Riggs: 9:37

And you know, yes, yeah.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 9:39

Yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 9:40

Yeah, yeah.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 9:41

That’s very very cool.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 9:42

Yeah, yeah, that’s very, very cool.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 9:47

I love that, though I love doing races with my son or any of my stepkids and kicking their butt.

Shan Riggs: 9:52

Frankly, or even grandkids now. And actually we were just in Utah over the weekend.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 10:01

Okay.

Shan Riggs: 10:02

Cooper, my older son, works at Snowbird. So they took me up on the slopes and to really sketchy terrain and when I started to get a little nervous, Cooper was like Mom, this is payback for when you took me up Mount Washington in the 70 mile an hour wind when I was 10 years old.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 10:22

Exactly, he’s still traumatized.

Shan Riggs: 10:24

I guess, yeah, I deserve that, but you know I kind of that’s what I wanted them to do Get out there and be, you know, adventurous and see all of us yeah, do all of those you know traveling and just being out there. So keep doing it.

Coach Polly Mertens: 10:39

And Josh, did that come from? Like your upbringing, Like was your family? You said that they were in the military. So were they. Was it? Your dad was a big outdoorsman, or mom was like a cyclist, or anything like that, or how did you get?

Shan Riggs: 10:53

Not really. I don’t know where it came from, I guess just friends and people I met who had similar interests and ended up getting outdoors with people. So yeah, I think it was more when I was an adult and I picked it up.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 11:11

So both of you already had a pretty active lifestyle before you met and apparently on this dating app you that was a high priority for both of you. Was that also in your criteria, josh? I wasn’t athletic or forget about it.

Shan Riggs: 11:25

I have a yeah athletic, I would prefer yes.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 11:26

Yes.

Shan Riggs: 11:28

I don’t remember, it was so long ago.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 11:32

Whatever it was, you fit the, you fit the model there, shan. So good job. So you guys met, you went on a date together and you quickly discovered this shared passion for all things endurance and outdoor shenanigans, or how did it go? So your first date was at a restaurant, but was the second date did? We hit the trail pretty quicker.

Shan Riggs: 11:52

When did we hit the trail?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 11:55

I started running to your house.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 11:58

You started running to her house. Was she aware that you were coming or were you just being like a stalker at this point?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 12:03

Hey, do you want to come over? And I would be like, okay, I’ll be there in eight hours. It was your training.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 12:11

Wait, is that how far you actually lived?

Shan Riggs: 12:14

Yes.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 12:14

Oh, he’s not kidding.

Shan Riggs: 12:16

No, he’s not kidding, true story.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 12:18

It was no.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 12:19

Connecticut. It was from Glastonbury to Southbury.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 12:22

Oh my gosh. So you would run eight hours to get to her house and then, what happened yeah.

Shan Riggs: 12:31

I would run down this big hill that’s right outside of our house, two miles and more, to meet him and then run back, and then we’d come back and run up the hill. I would want to walk because it’s really steep and he’s like I just ran 45 miles. I can run it. I was like yeah you’re right. Okay, so it was really motivating.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 12:54

The pressure when you’re first dating. What do you put your arm on that?

Shan Riggs: 12:57

pressure. I liked it, I liked it.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 12:59

I liked it, yeah it was honest and then I bet he expected to be fed like significantly. Yeah, I don’t know, that’s a lot of miles.

Shan Riggs: 13:07

I mean, it was like nothing. He just like we’re totally normal after yeah make it normal. Yeah.

Coach Polly Mertens: 13:14

Indiana roots man. He’s just like like a workhorse here. Sounds like what do you call him? Shan, the man Shan?

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 13:21

the man. There’s only one Shan Shan the man. It’s so true. Okay, so here you are, you’re dating, you run 50 miles to her house to win her heart. And then what happens? At what point did you guys start doing things together like biking or running or planning any kind of other adventures?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 13:43

Was that pretty Well. I did run across American 2020 and then you and I went to Australia in that bubble for six weeks in 2021.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 13:54

Yes, it was a bubble.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 13:56

I think Josh was pretty sick of me leaving to go on an adventure, so she had the idea of hey, I wonder if any of them has ever run the entire East Coast Greenway. And, by the way, let’s do it together and I’ll ride my bike and tow all of our gear and a little trailer.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 14:14

So this was your idea, lady.

Coach Polly Mertens: 14:16

It was yes, yes, when did you get this crazy idea?

Shan Riggs: 14:24

I don’t know. I mean you had a van on your first crossing and I kind of I mean driving a van would be nice because it’s much easier. Yes, but I was like well, it might be bored if you could do another big one.

Shan Riggs: 14:43

And I kind of want to ride across the country and do these things on my bike. So why don’t we try and figure out how to do it together and with I think with the pandemic we figured out and working remotely, you’re able to say you haven’t kit up and move around and do more things all over the place. So we decided to see how it would go. We did a training, kind of a. What’s that calling it a test run? Let’s do a test run on the Erie Canal first. Okay, it’s shorter, it’s only 360, 400 miles, something like that 400 miles was your test run.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 15:23

I love the expression. That’s not a test run, that’s a week-long expression.

Shan Riggs: 15:31

I always wanted to do this. So the Erie Canal there’s a towpath that has been converted into a multi-use trail and I’ve been reading about it and wanting to do it for a really long time, and so this is a great opportunity so we can check off a couple boxes, figure out what gear we would need, how we could, what we had to pack, how it all worked really, and, yeah, I think it was a good test, and what did you?

Coach Polly Mertens: 15:57

find. So you get out there and you’re doing this. You said a week-long. What did you run into? Did everything go as planned? Did you forget stuff? Did you have a lot of help? Just walk us through. What was the actual explorable type?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 16:12

So the format was we do which we did both on Erie Canal, also the east coast, green again. The west coast was basically we’ll go on Erie Canal between 40 and 50 miles a day and our figure of things is anywhere from 30 to 50, kind of depending on where we stay, where we could find a place to sleep. So that this is the basic example. So I think at Erie Canal it took nine days, something like that, and it was yeah, I think it was around 400 miles.

Shan Riggs: 16:42

So right, it’s not quite that long, but we went that long because we had to get to the hotels and stop the lunch at places.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 16:50

Yeah, how long had you been dating before this? I have to know. I’m so curious.

Shan Riggs: 16:56

We met in January of 2020. So we do almost two years.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 17:02

Yeah, right, okay, so you knew no argument yeah you already knew all the weird quirks and everything you know like bizarre behaviors that might show up under duress like this. Yeah, okay.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 17:18

Part of it is well Erie Canal. We took the time off, but for the east coast greenway and the west coast we were both working, although I decreased my hours by a lot but still took some calls on the run. But Josh was working full time on all those things.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 17:34

What yeah? How is that even?

Shan Riggs: 17:37

possible. You know well, by the way, does the?

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 17:42

company, know Is the company aware Okay.

Shan Riggs: 17:47

Just checking before this was going to go public. They shared it on LinkedIn and they supported it. It was great.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 17:53

I mean work from anywhere. We took work from anywhere to New Heights, yeah.

Shan Riggs: 17:57

Seriously, I’m not on the move quite as long most of the time, so he’s running eight hours a day, yeah, about eight hours a day and I’m biking between three and five hours a day on the east coast, greenway.

Shan Riggs: 18:13

It was a little different on the west coast but so we worked in the morning, sometimes on the road, so I could take calls from. You know their cell service on the east coast pretty much anywhere, so it could stop at Park, their top of shop I ran into a call like literally on a swamp, with like watch for alligator signs. I didn’t sit down. I didn’t sit down to take that call. I stood.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 18:39

Cemetery, yes, like just church steps. No, quiet, abandoned buildings, you know so people can kind of get a visual of this.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 18:50

You’re riding your bike and you’re also towing a trailer with all of your gear, because to be able to do this in this kind of setup, it’s not. You know, you’re not going from Marriott to Hilton to, you know, having this lavish experience with just a little sprinkle of bike and running in between, you are self-propelling yourselves and self-supporting yourselves across these miles with all of your gear and toe, so you’re the one towing all the stuff. Shian doesn’t have this stuff on his back, I hope.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 19:19

It’s fantastic, yeah.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 19:21

I know best partner ever.

Shan Riggs: 19:23

It’s so easy for him.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 19:26

Most of the time I would just on the east coast and west coast, especially since there’s enough civilization, I would most of the time just bring a credit card in my phone and that was really all I needed.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 19:39

There were times in the south where I would bring a water bottle, because it was 100 degrees, but other than that it was mostly just the card and Josh would meet up with me sometimes, but there were other days she’s working the whole time so I would not really see her until evening. And where we stayed was always interesting, and part of the fun is every day we’re waking up in someplace new. So sometimes camping, sometimes people’s houses because they thought we were doing gave us a room to stay in Sometimes hotels everything being split in a plus one night. I mean just all kinds of interesting things.

Shan Riggs: 20:14

Not just like a random bus. Oh, yeah, yeah it was one.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 20:17

Someone was drinking out of a great-.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 20:18

You broke into like a great-own bus. I saw one. You were sleeping in like a little. It looked like a tool shed or something you know. Yeah, yeah, that was like a ground.

Shan Riggs: 20:28

It was really cute. Yeah, the bed filled up most of the room.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 20:33

So, if I’m getting this right, Josh, you’re sort of the catalyst for these things. A, you get these crazy ideas and Shan willingly goes along, of course, and then you’re the operational director who’s planning this whole thing, Logistics and stuff. Wow.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 20:48

Yeah, it’s much simpler, but I just have to wake up and run all day. I’m just figuring out where we’re gonna stay and all that kind of stuff, though my job is just to run all day and promote the charity that we’re working with and talk to the media.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 21:03

Yeah, yeah, which are all things that have to be coordinated also.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 21:07

Yeah right.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 21:07

Right, yeah, that’s what I’m doing.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 21:09

You’re still doing most of that for you.

Coach Polly Mertens: 21:11

Yeah and Josh, does that come as something that you had in a previous career, or is it something you’re naturally gifted at or just having kids Like, or it’s probably a little?

Shan Riggs: 21:21

of everything. Polly, I do have to do a lot of planning at work and having juggling kids and work and other things too. You really have to be organized and I’ve always used spreadsheets to plan life in general, so I enjoy doing it. A lot of the fun is the planning. I’m glad she thinks so.

Coach Polly Mertens: 21:43

Yeah, I was just gonna say some people are like that would make them crazy, so tell me a little bit about these.

Coach Polly Mertens: 21:51

I’m gonna probe just a little bit because I’m curious when people, let’s say, run their life on a spreadsheet or organize their life on a spreadsheet, because some people, no like I, do a lot of planning, like my week and goals and stuff like that, but it looks a little different in, let’s call it, a day timer type thing. So tell me about these spreadsheets, what are they like? What do you have in them? Is this so? Is it by adventure, or is it like you just have some for everyday life, like who’s going where? It’s a lot of.

Shan Riggs: 22:22

let’s see calendars and dates and what’s happening when, for our adventures, the mileage, the towns that we’re stopping in, kind of map it out ahead of time roughly where we’re gonna be, and then link that with our starting date and then get really nerdy and put in formulas so that if one thing changes it auto-taculate.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 22:50

Oh my goodness, and all that yeah it’s really nerdy and for something that last weeks or months, like the flexibility is critical because, things are not gonna go precisely as planned and we know we planned for the unplanned.

Coach Polly Mertens: 23:07

Well, I wanna talk. I wanna double click on that, because I was reading one of your articles about the Oregon coming down the Oregon coast and it seemed like the Greenway expedition had a lot of I just wanna call it like grace and good karma and most things went as well as they could. It sounded a little bit more like Oregon or the West Coast, was just like a little and then they beat me down with this and then another thing.

Shan Riggs: 23:34

You know it was yeah, you’re right, it was very different. The East Coast Greenway was a cakewalk.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 23:41

I think it was about a 3000-mile journey.

Shan Riggs: 23:44

Yeah, and 100-degree temps and yeah, but we held up on the Greenway, we didn’t have any physical challenges, so much.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 23:55

Yeah, we stopped two days. We went every day. I had some knee injury problems, and so we took literally one day off in Florida or something like that.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 24:06

Off of how many days? Overall 78, 70.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 24:09

The total it was 77 days and seven hours.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 24:11

It’s unreal.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 24:12

So we took one day off in Florida and then we planned to stop at our home in Connecticut, since we were nearby.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 24:20

The bays. I mean just, you know.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 24:22

We took one day there and then we were coming through and that was it.

Shan Riggs: 24:26

Wow.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 24:27

So that was the only days that we had off in the East Coast and then the West Coast was a little different. Yeah.

Coach Polly Mertens: 24:35

So what was that like? So I, you know Samantha’s the big ultra runner in, let’s say, our partnership here. You know, we can see the partnership that you guys have who the heavier runner is, and so I’ll leave on Samantha as the heavier runner. I have run, I did the trans-Rocky, so there were six days of like the eight hour kind of thing. But you know, after five days I’m just like, oh, my goodness this running thing, you know, I mean I felt a little PTSD coming back.

Coach Polly Mertens: 25:01

I’m like I don’t wanna look at a mountain for at least two weeks. And to hear you like 70, oh yeah, 77 and seven, you know three quarters, and we took two days off, like how is that mentally possible to I mean, does that surprise you? Or was it like, oh, you know, I worked up to that because I, you know, I know you were in Australia and you had the 11 days. Was it like 11 days of like? Were you working up to that? Or had you always been running every day, like you just run every day, or yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 25:33

I mean my training to get ready for a like a big mega run is running every day, usually have a couple days a week that are at least 30 miles and then mix and feed and everything else. So I would tell people that your body will get used to anything if you do it long enough, and which is completely true and so it is. If I don’t run, I feel a little fargic and not well so. I’m pretty much stuck with it now, but as far as addictions go, it’s a pretty good one.

Coach Polly Mertens: 26:09

And Josh, how was it for you, like, had you done this much consistent? You know like it sounds like maybe Shans had a little bit more experience in the multi-day, multi-week, you know that type of thing how was it for you? Going day in, day out and especially adjusting from working from home is one thing, but this whole next level, like I’ve done some travel and try and work nomadically and oh, yeah and take pictures or running or whatever. It’s a juggle, it’s a hustle.

Shan Riggs: 26:37

Yeah, yeah, and before I guess the Eury Canal is that which, let me say, nine days, and before that I had done, I don’t know, three to five day trip on the bike, maybe a similar mileage, but not with a trailer. So it was. I was a little nervous about it when we first, you know, headed south to Key West to get started and but I don’t know, you’re right, you’re too used to it, it’s like get up and we build the routine and whenever we do really long stuff we actually start a little bit slower to get the body used to kind of be on the road all the time.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 27:15

I do 30 to 40 instead of 40 to 50.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 27:19

30 miles is slower. Yeah, well, I’m trying to say like a week is that’s.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 27:24

You’re just getting started, but after just a few days we had, you know, routine with what we do. At the end of the day, and where we get going. You know, one of the fun parts is that you’re in a different place every night, but you’re also in a different place every night, so that’s part of the challenge too. I don’t know how many times I woke up in the middle of the night and tried to go to the bathroom and ran into a wall or almost stepped off of a cliff or something.

Coach Polly Mertens: 27:48

So because you’re not the same place, yeah, yeah, so mentally, was it, you know, was it the same mentally as it was physically? It’s like, oh yeah, it just gets into the routine. Or did you face mental struggles as well, like you know, mental resistance, like what are we doing out here? We should just you know what the heck.

Shan Riggs: 28:08

I never had any doubt about what we were doing, but there was certainly, I think, more of an adjustment mentally and getting used to sort of a routine than it was with physical. I wasn’t worried about being able to ride the bike, but just juggling and just kind of doing everything going as well as the card.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 28:31

I guess we kind of treat it like a job, like you get up and you do it all day. I can say from when I’m running it’s painful for sure, and the challenge is being in pain for moderate pain for most of the day, every day. And so there’s different strategies. Some is just embrace it, embrace the sucker, whatever people say, go to the pain cave. Then there’s distraction. I do like to listen to podcasts and a lot of audio books and then also just kind of meditate on things. So between those kind of three things, just embrace it or ignore it that’s kind of the mental piece of when I’m actually going.

Coach Polly Mertens: 29:21

And Josh, as you’re juggling all these logistics, I mean I want to say, like Shan, yours is very you kind of called it meditative, I can. Yeah, I mean there’s a lot of pounding and grinding, let’s call it that’s going on in the body, but it’s repetitive, if you will. And Jan’s is more like she’s the chaos behind the wizard moving all the pieces and the puppeteer, all this stuff. What were your mental rehearsals or things you told?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 29:51

yourself.

Coach Polly Mertens: 29:53

Yeah, or was it like did you have a mantra and maybe you don’t even remember, but anything that you can share that that many logistics, that much change. I mean we’re talking about massive change every day. The mind resists that and you got to be on.

Shan Riggs: 30:10

Yeah, I really just tried to enjoy it and appreciate all of the new places that we were seeing at a little bit slower motion than if you were driving. I did make a lot of videos that I was talking to the kids and sending them kind of dumb mom videos and showing them where we were and singing songs and kind of keeping myself entertained. But just seeing the little towns we went through, talking especially to the cute little southern guys who are like what are you pulling there, lady? That’s a cool little bike, Can you tell?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 30:46

Whatever yeah?

Shan Riggs: 30:47

So it was just, it was so exciting for me the entire time that yeah, it was stressful, it was a lot of work, but I just I appreciated it. So many people came out too once the word got out that this guy was running up the East Coast. People would want to join for runs and people coming on their bikes, and it was, I don’t know, it’s just always something interesting to do. So it kept the grumpy feelings away again.

Coach Polly Mertens: 31:14

What a beautiful perspective, I mean, if we translate. So the things that we put ourselves through in life, whether they be hard or challenges, or call it an expedition or something. One of my mentors is like you don’t plan a vacation, that you go. Oh, I’m going to start here and I’m going to go here, here, here and here, and then I’m going to come back to where I started. Why go? It’s like I’m coming back here, but you go for those steps along the way.

Coach Polly Mertens: 31:41

And what I love about what you’re saying is like yeah, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be challenging, there’s things that we’re going to juggle.

Coach Polly Mertens: 31:47

I’m going to wake up and bump into the wall, right, you know, in the middle of the night, or maybe we won’t have the best meal or the best night’s sleep, but these are the moments of your life. It seems like you guys are wanting to not miss anything, like, oh, I want to appreciate this. I know we can physically do it, but I want to appreciate this. And one of the things before we went on air is we were just sharing with you guys like this feels like you’re normal now, not the 3,000 miles that are doing that every day, but these are the types of things that you’re up to and you’re interested in, and I just see this beautiful partnership and teamwork that you guys have created. I’m like these two are so interwoven. It’s amazing. I mean, the team that you guys make is beautiful to witness and that you have such a shared vision and a shared appreciation of like let’s enjoy this life, let’s enjoy each other, and there’s no ones carrying the other. I mean, there’s probably times where somebody’s a little grumpy.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 32:50

I’m sure there’s a grumpy. I’m sure there is Right, they’re human.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 32:58

Well, that’s why we got engaged. After these two screenings you can’t be much more together than we were on that trip. But we also say, especially for expeditions, as compared to, let’s say, a race or something, the expeditions are both type one and type two fun. So type one being like this, is actually fun in the moment, and type two is fun because you accomplished something. So this is our way of kind of combining, doing both at the same time. Get to see the country.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 33:30

Well, it’s how you’re building your life. It’s how you guys have decided, with great intention and dedication, to build your life in this model, which I think is incredibly unique. I mean, I don’t know many couples doing anything even close to this, and when I said power couples like I’m not kidding, but somehow you guys have not only continued to thrive under all of these crazy circumstances, but you continue to take on these adventures. However, it can’t all be roses and rainbows, people, so I want to hear from each of you individually, during these experiences, what was your individual toughest moment? And then, collectively, what would you say was the most challenging moment?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 34:17

He did it. Let’s go. Thank you. He already knows what yours is, lady.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 34:22

Oh yeah, he’s like I know exactly.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 34:24

OK, let’s hit Josh.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 34:26

Josh, what you got girl, what was it?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 34:31

I can give my moment on our trip, probably. So I had a moment on the Esau screenway. It was in Maine, sort of towards the end of the last week, and the down east sunrise trail, which is really beautiful. But we were going in, I guess, at the end of June, first part of July, and there was a day I hit that trail and I didn’t have a spoke spray and that was a huge mistake. Maine of June, oh, just black blood, black lives and mosquitoes and other things are just constant, just torture, and I hate bugs. But that day I was letting it get to me, which is something you just can’t do because then you go into a downer with a spiral. So I was letting the bugs get to me and I needed to head to the bathroom and go into the woods and squat by a tree and I was kind of in anger with the situation and I was in too much of a hurry and I didn’t look at the tree closely that I wasn’t going to lean against no Chan.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 35:42

I pulled it off the way it cracked and broke and landed on top of me. Oh my, it was my pants around my ankle and it didn’t hurt me badly, but it was painful and I’m getting eaten filthy trying to figure out how I’m going to clean myself up.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 36:04

Yeah, yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 36:05

And I called Josh and it was just literally screaming and crying yeah.

Shan Riggs: 36:11

All I heard was something about a tree falling on him and I was like are you OK? Can I call for help? What’s going on? It’s like springtime spray. It’s like god fuck my head Not to mention the poopy drawers.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 36:24

Yes, that was hell of a guy.

Shan Riggs: 36:26

Yeah, he could figure that out.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 36:29

Yeah, he’s huge to that part. That’s normal in ultra-running.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 36:32

Don’t tell anybody but I littered. I left my underwear in the woods.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 36:37

Hey, reasonable behavior. You actually left a present for the bugs that were trying to eat you alive. It was a gift.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 36:45

That was the one and only time I’ve littered on any of these trips, but I did bury it.

Shan Riggs: 36:49

But I wasn’t going to carry that with me.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 36:51

Wow.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 36:54

But mentally you had the fortitude. To what Did you call it quits for the day and then get up and go the next day, or how’d this end?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 37:02

Well, we had to finish. Yes, we had an option on these things. So we’re committed to where we’re going to go and we’re not going to spend the night.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 37:08

Oh, for spending the night that night. So yeah, OK.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 37:12

So we try to decide at least a couple of days in advance where we’re going to stay. We try not to go too many days in advance though, because now things have changed, which is like your experience in Oregon, I thought.

Shan Riggs: 37:24

Oh my, oh yeah, that was pretty bad OK.

Coach Polly Mertens: 37:29

So what’s your low moment, or what was your almost breaking point?

Shan Riggs: 37:33

Maybe, there’s many. So there were a couple, but this one particular. What was it about? A month or so into the trip, Maybe it wasn’t quite that long.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 37:44

No a couple of weeks.

Shan Riggs: 37:45

Two or three weeks into the Pacific Coast trip, I woke up with neck pain. That was just stability. I couldn’t stand up. I felt like I would pass out. It was so painful and I tried to go to the bathroom and ended up in the bathroom on the floor, because anytime I tried to like I said I stood up. I thought it was going to pass out and that would have been bad. So I was in the bathroom calling for Shan.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 38:16

It was like one in the morning or something, and I just was on the bathroom floor and I’m trying to find her. Yeah, and I was like I need to open.

Shan Riggs: 38:25

This is scary. He’s like let me help you, don’t move me, no, but you need to get off the ground, ok, I was like if you move me it’s going to hurt. So I took a ton of Advil that night, finally got some relief in the morning and we were in I don’t remember the name of the town, a little fishing town on the coast of Oregon, near really nothing, and the closest town is Tillamook, which was 12 miles from where we were and we didn’t really have any way to get there. I think there was a bus that came through once a day or something, and but then we took the bus. The bike would be there. It was very complicated, so I ended up hopping on the bike and slowly pedaling the 12 miles, which was doable, and the mile down the road had a flat tire. So that was fun. So I ended up going to urgent care and they took a look at my neck. Nothing was, you know, nothing like broken or whatever. So it’s muscle relaxers and steroids and the digress. And then we got overuse.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 39:32

Basically, it’s like those people who race across America and I’m sure you know these people who have heard these stories and they can’t support their neck anymore, literally their head and so they’ve contrived all these weird braces and things to hold their head. Well, you were doing the same damn thing, riding day after day after day for hundreds, and I mean that’s totally wild. Our heads are heavy and you’re really smart, your head is really heavy.

Shan Riggs: 39:59

It is yeah, yeah, it’s that big.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 40:03

When those things happened and you got yourselves into those predicaments which you gracefully got yourselves out of, obviously, but like what was going on in your mindset, Was it like can we do this? This is insane.

Shan Riggs: 40:16

Well, I was well, yeah, we could do it With her injury, I thought maybe our trip was over. Yeah, I was ready to. Just well, we’ll just rent a car or something, or you know, because you guys will run, you know. Yeah, we could be able to take it out somehow.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 40:36

I guess that’s the attitude, though we’re going to figure this out one way or another.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 40:39

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 40:42

And then just a few days later I had an injury, that something happened where my legs swell up severely and I couldn’t even walk for two days. So we had to take another couple of days. It’s completely off. And then I was only able to walk for about a week. So I would walk 30 plus miles a day for several days and it slowly got better until I could run, that’s kind of the same thing.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 41:09

We thought for a minute that Maybe this is over, but we weren’t going to give up and we were going to keep moving. The first day after taking two days off from me, it was like, okay, I’m going to walk all day. I’m going to just go all day, see how far we can get. If, at the end of the day, it’s not worse than it was when I started, then we’ve still got a chance.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 41:35

Then go all day, very slowly, to try as hard as I could I would have walked 17 miles or something like really just blimp pretty severely for 17 miles or something like that. At the end of the day it felt about the same, but it wasn’t worse. If moving wasn’t making it worse, it means it must have been getting better.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 41:59

Or not, but your stubborn as hell. This isn’t even resiliency, this is like next level. This is a whole other thing than people really can wrap their brain around. There’s all these movements around grit, resiliency and mental toughness and all this stuff. Listen, people, this is a whole other thing. I’m so curious.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 42:19

We look at it from a pragmatic perspective and I think you have to. I’m just going to do exactly as much as my body will allow. We’re going to problem solve from there. It’s the same thing with her neck. It’s like the injuries may or may not come, but when it happens you can’t get despondent. Or if you’re going to cry, make it 30 seconds and then get back to it.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 42:48

Yeah, crying is good, let it all out. But where does this come from?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 42:52

I’m in a beef coat situation.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 42:54

Oh, I’m sure you were.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 42:56

I was more of a feeling sorry for myself. But you can’t do that you can’t let that take over.

Shan Riggs: 43:05

Where does?

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 43:05

this come from. We’ve got to know. Polly’s going to ask you anyway. I know she’s going to ask you. Where is this coming from, these two humans that come to the table with this amount of mental toughness? That is just beyond comprehension.

Coach Polly Mertens: 43:19

Can I reflect something that? Sorry to interrupt you, shant, but I even wonder you know. So I watch a lot of motivational videos and stuff when I go on to get pumped up and go to the gym and have a hard workout or something like that. There’s a lot of like rah, rah, right, kind of thing. And what I’m noticing with you guys is it doesn’t feel like the level of these rah, rah videos of grit and resilience because you have a love of what you’re doing Like you feel like you’re on your path or you’re in this flow.

Coach Polly Mertens: 43:53

It’s almost like you’re in the stream and going down the boat and like, oh, shoot, it tipped over a little bit. Oh, get the stuff and we’ll get back in the boat, honey, you know like, oh, you know, just keep rowing. And or like, boom, we got up on a rock. Or you know there’s a little hole in the bottom of the boat, ok, we’ll pull over, let’s, but we’re, you know, the stream’s kind of going, let’s just get in it. It’s not let’s row upstream, that’s not. You know, like you guys aren’t sitting here going, let’s go upstream and do something that we wouldn’t enjoy or we would fight the whole time. It’s more like hey, we’ve created this idea. This going from a point B to point B Sounds like a fun expedition. We’ve, you’ve, started the flow like hey, let’s, let’s get on this road. Let’s, let’s, let’s go enjoy this adventure together.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 44:37

Yeah, I think that’s something that’s different. Like, if you’re doing a hard workout or a race a few miles or you know a relatively short thing you can motivate yourself to rah-rah, like you said, like that. That, I think, has a place there. But when you’re doing something like this, it’s basically like this is just our life. Now we’re we’re going to be doing this for many days, many weeks, sometimes months, and so you really just have to have a pragmatic like this. That’s just. That’s just who we are now.

Coach Polly Mertens: 45:10

Yeah a new normal. It’s your new normal, yeah.

Shan Riggs: 45:13

Yeah, and I think the the, especially on the the West coast where we were, was amazing and beautiful. And I had a few moments in the pouring rain climbing up this forever hill with all of this crap behind me and I was getting really cranky and then I was like, wait a minute, there’s a freaking ocean is right there. I’m going down the coast of a cut Like this is awesome, you know painful and you know uncomfortable, as you get it’s. It’s really great that we’re able to do it. So, yeah, we got to take a deep breath.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 45:51

So many thunders, oh yeah.

Coach Polly Mertens: 45:54

Well, and I’ve heard you more than once, josh, say that you know it’s perspective right. So you, you were able to. You know I have a girlfriend who calls them pity parties. You know she’s like. You know, like when I, like you know, feel like that little two-year-old or something, something’s not going right. Or you know she’s like, yeah, have a pity party and then get over it, right, and so you self-manage these little moments of frustration or upset or body not wanting to do it. And then you’re like, but wait right, like you, you allow yourself the opportunity to see the bigger picture. You know, like what’s the? You know. So sometimes the mind has a way of getting so micro focused on the pain or the problem and, shan, you said this a little earlier too, you said I didn’t let it get to me. So I think you guys both have a way of not letting it, whatever it is, steal your joy. You know, like you have.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 46:43

That comes from practice, you know, like I’m 45 now and I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I may have been physically, but I don’t think it was essentially able to do it at 20, you know that exactly takes a lot of practice and now it’s just. It’s just, it’s just my life now. It’s just just what we do. Yeah, it doesn’t it is. It’s completely just a normal thing Like we treated the West Coast. That was our honeymoon and that was real long.

Coach Polly Mertens: 47:15

And would you say you know so. So you know I love what you say because I’m the same way. I’m like I’m in better shape now than I was in my 20s. You know, my mindset is much more expansive, flexible, all the things right, Like you know, as we get in later years, it’s that wisdom, you know, earned through experience, and so you guys put yourself in things. Maybe that sounds super fun or sound. I remember reading in summary you said we knew it was going to be hard. You know, like you, you know, going into these things it’s not like sunshine and rainbows. You know you’re you’re going to have oise and and missteps or you know, maybe whatever things are, things are good and one of the things I tell myself is I’ve, I’ve, it’s been worse, I’ve felt worse.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 47:58

True, which is true. So when, when I’m in a ton of pain.

Shan Riggs: 48:02

I’m like oh, I’ve.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 48:03

I’ve definitely felt worse. I’ve been through worse.

Shan Riggs: 48:06

And I think that’s probably true.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 48:07

in most people’s lives, it’s rarely ever the worst time ever until it is.

Coach Polly Mertens: 48:12

Well, actually so. So I just want to call that out because you’re absolutely right. There’s a so what’s wrong is you know you can focus on what’s wrong, but what’s right is always available, too right. And so you’re saying I choose to recognize this isn’t the worst pain I’ve ever been in, right, and so that uplifts you, that keeps you.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 48:29

And even, and even the times when it is it’s like, oh, I reached a new level.

Coach Polly Mertens: 48:38

New threshold. Yeah, that’s a win, that’s a win.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 48:42

And you know what’s fricking cool is also the fact that you guys are doing this as a partnership, so you’re witnessing, you’re bearing witness to each other, having these experiences, communicating, working through stuff. I mean it’s really exceptional, because I’m sure there’s plenty of times in these scenarios, or in things far less complicated and difficult than this, that couples would actually turn on each other and the last thing they would be doing would be supporting the other person’s growth because they’re so busy drowning in their own pity party or misery, right? But somehow you guys have created something magical here. Can you speak to that?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 49:18

I’ll start and I think, yeah, the like. I think it’s probably true for both of us that that most painful experience I had on the West Coast was witnessing her being in pain on the country floor Wow. That was not knowing what to do and telling that kind of. And I’ve definitely seen like when I’m injured she looks like she’s more pained than when she’s actually in pain. I can see it in her eyes, so that’s just how we are, I think.

Shan Riggs: 49:51

Yeah, and it reminds me of the Vermont runs that you did, the 200 miles from Canada through Maine 200 and 100? Yeah, that was. It’s a bike ride that people do all the time on this route 100 that goes through Vermont’s lovely and Hilly and hard and I was like, oh you should.

Shan Riggs: 50:10

I’ve biked it before. You should run it, and so I didn’t bike really. I mean, I brought the bike or whatever, but I was just, you know, driving along doing you know, normal support. And on the last day I was like I’m never gonna suggest that you do something like this again, because I could see he was like I’m almost there and it was, he just looks. Oh, he just looks.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 50:32

So and I guess I was pained Brutal.

Shan Riggs: 50:36

It was just like I can’t do it, I can’t watch you do this, but. But yes, it was good. But yes, you’re right, it’s hard to watch that, but we sweat with that point Apparently.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 50:52

How do you take these lessons and these experiences into your everyday life, whether it’s your work life or your parenting mode, or out in community raising money, doing other things that you guys do? You’re really actually quite well-rounded humans and somehow miraculously have this aspect of your life. How do you take these learnings and lessons into the other spaces?

Shan Riggs: 51:14

I think they kind of cross over from one to the other. I used to really like to plan everything in my younger years and have everything go smoothly and kind of you still plan everything.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 51:28

What are you talking about?

Shan Riggs: 51:30

I’m OK if it doesn’t go the way it’s planned.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 51:33

OK.

Shan Riggs: 51:34

Previously it was kind of you know, of course, having two kids, nothing’s going to go how it’s supposed to go or how you think it’s going to go. So that was one thing I think helped with these kinds of adventures. So it’s kind of the other way around yeah, the normal life is helping, yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 51:52

I always like when you do hard things for fun, doing hard things for your job is to make that easier. So getting up in the morning you’re like, oh, I don’t want to do this thing I have to do today, but it’s not going to be as hard as the thing I did on the weekend.

Shan Riggs: 52:07

In fact, I think most of our vacations that we take, I can’t wait to get back to work so I can relax. I’m just running and climbing things and you know outside whatever, but it’s almost easier to work.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 52:22

It’s a good trip if you’re looking forward to going on the trip and you’re also looking forward to getting home by the end.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 52:28

Getting in your own bed and eating real food. Yeah, wow, yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 52:34

So that’s one tricky thing on these types of exhibitions we do. We’re mostly stuck eating restaurant food. Yeah, it provides plenty of calories, but an awful lot of butter and sugar and salt. But, for me it kind of has to have some of that for as many calories as burning. But I was craving salads by the day, oh, totally.

Coach Polly Mertens: 52:56

And Josh, I’m wondering does any of this trickle down to your kids? Did they look at you? You know, hands on the hips like mom, you know like, or is it more like they’re up for it or you guys engage together in any of this? Or where do they sit? Yeah?

Shan Riggs: 53:12

They’re adventure seekers. My older son does hang gliding instruction. He’s a big snowboarder and he’s, you know, just a daredevil. My younger son and I we just did a two day bike ride across New Hampshire on the Cross New Hampshire adventure trail last summer. So he’s starting to kind of catch the bug, I guess, and we’re planning more trips this year to do those things.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 53:45

They just seem normal because it’s what’s around them, what they’re swimming in all the time.

Coach Polly Mertens: 53:49

It’s so true and I was wondering, you know, I was asking you, josh, what was it like growing up? Because you have this sense of adventure, but it didn’t. I mean, some of that is just military life, you know, the moving, if you will Like I don’t know how many schools you were in and out of, or packing the house kind of thing, experiences that you had, but that can. But it sounds like you even, as you admitted earlier on in life, you know, I like structure and I like when things go as planned, and even these adventures that you’re doing now are helping you expand that container called flexibility, called doesn’t have to always, it will still work out great, you know, and you keep your head above water, as the rapids are, you know, raging down the water of these expeditions. So what is one that is on your near term agenda?

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 54:33

Is there anything Ooh what’s next?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 54:35

I was looking for ideas.

Coach Polly Mertens: 54:39

What do you wish for?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 54:40

There’s one, a send us a message. We’re always trying to look for new ideas. I’ve now run across 27 states, most of them long way, so we might do a couple more states, one at a time, one at a time. Maybe, maybe. But what we are? We’re searching for ideas, for sure.

Coach Polly Mertens: 55:01

Would you do anything?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 55:02

international.

Shan Riggs: 55:03

Or planning something. Yeah, oh, I think I were planning the Erie Canal Trail, so you are.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 55:08

Yeah.

Shan Riggs: 55:09

So he’s interested in doing that.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 55:10

And this time I get to drive the support vehicle.

Shan Riggs: 55:13

Yes.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 55:14

That’s right.

Shan Riggs: 55:15

Yeah, so that’s the time that you’re at.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 55:20

That is so cool, so cool. Yeah, paulie was asking if you’re interested in doing anything international. We’re still owed a good run in Australia. Change, we need a fricking do over.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 55:30

OK, we got to go meet back up with our social media Australian friends. Exactly, you really get to know people in your six weeks in the bubble with them, yeah, and Team USA, we still loved each other.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 55:42

I mean, we’re pretty amazing. Ok, so we heard about your next adventure. We want to sort of leave the episode here, with our listeners getting some takeaways from you guys. Normally they hear from us, but we’d really like to have them hear from you in terms of what would be like your core message, either collectively or individually, that you’d want people who are listening to this to hear and to think about and maybe give some consideration about.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 56:09

So I guess a couple of things Just. We were talking about mindset and another one is like kind of mantra that I’ve done myself but never, always gets worse, which basically means whenever you’re going through it’s not going to just continually get worse and worse and worse and worse.

Coach Polly Mertens: 56:29

And I couldn’t hear what you were saying. We got to repeat that.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 56:32

It never, always gets worse it never, always gets worse.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 56:35

It’s actually a pretty common mantra in the ultra running community. So in a 100 mile rate and you’re 70 miles in and you feel like you’re just going to get worse and worse and worse and you just can’t comprehend how you could possibly keep going if it’s just going to get worse, just keep going. Sometimes, at some point it’ll just get better.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 56:56

Sometimes it’s when it’s over, but nonetheless, yeah, at some point it will end Exactly, and I’ll start with kind of our brand. I guess that with all the different charities and we work with in trying to get people outside, so that’s one kind of unifying thing. So, whether it’s working with East Coast Greenway or Center Cycling Association or some of these other groups, so just get outside.

Coach Polly Mertens: 57:25

And why? Why get outside? Why does that matter to you?

Shan Riggs: 57:29

You can see the world, do the things that you love and stay healthy, enjoy life.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 57:39

Learn about each other and learn about humanity. I mean, I’m sure you guys I feel 1,000%, I’m sure you would agree you learn so much about yourself doing things of this magnitude that you would never, ever be able to discover within yourself. And then, of course, you get to share that with fellow humans.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 57:57

And it’s a nice actually be at the top of a mountain or the middle of the desert. All those places are nice to go to. I mean, our big trips have been in urban areas, which is a lot of fun. I mean, one of the most fun things, I think one of the best memories I had, was running through Manhattan on our trip and going down the mall and watching the DC. So getting outside doesn’t have to be out in nature even. Although that’s nice too.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 58:28

Get outside, ok, awesome. Well, tell our listeners where they can find you guys, how they can follow you and how they can get in touch If they feel like throwing some ideas your way or maybe even making a donation.

Shan Riggs: 58:41

We have a website at wwwextremelyoutside.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 58:47

Extremely outside. That’s awesome.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 58:51

We just updated it.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 58:54

I love the extremely part.

Shan Riggs: 58:57

Background, talking about your runs from the past, our big runs, photos, blogs, posts, lots of things, all of the contact yes everything Extremely outsidecom.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 59:12

Are you going to start leading these adventures at any point? Maybe we should sign up.

Shan Riggs: 59:16

We’re always looking for a new idea.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 59:19

OK, that’s my idea. I’m putting that on the table right now. Seriously, I think some groups shenanigans are in order that sounds fun.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 59:28

Yes, and sometimes it’s just the two of us. Other times we’ve done things in groups. We’re always looking for ideas.

Coach Polly Mertens: 59:35

And I want to say, just spending a little time that I’ve had to get to know you guys, there’s clearly some relationship chemistry and harmony that you guys have figured out. So if you’re ever able to figure out your own secret sauce, what’s making it work, and you could teach that to people like, yes, please, the his and the hers of a harmonious relationship on the go or when change is happening or whatever people, you guys have something figured out that is creating this partnership and this teamwork and this team effort that not everybody’s got figured out yet. I mean you’re juggling the family and the jobs and the sponsorships and finances and health and all these things inside of a beautiful relationship that seems very unified, like it’s going in the same direction. You guys are rowing together. You see people that are just flailing, but you guys feel like you’re rowing. I mean maybe you’re just giving us this face, I don’t know. No, I think it’s a deal.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 1:00:38

I definitely feel really lucky, and both of us have been married before too, so it’s taken some work in finding the right people and things out.

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:00:48

Yeah, well, and please keep sharing those parts of yourself with the world, because like I said people appreciate how did you logistically do it, how did you physically do it?

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:01:01

But how did you relationship? How did that keep your relationship together? What are your relationship strategies? I just want to throw that into the mix that maybe you’re aware of or maybe you’re not, but from the outside in it’s so clear that I want to be sure that you know the magic that you have. Like hey, how else can we help other people with this yumminess that you guys have?

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:01:23

going on, so keep that the world needs more of that, more of that, more of that, please. Maybe it’s extreme. Outdoors marital counseling oh my god, that’s brilliant, right there.

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:01:36

Take the counseling word off of that. I don’t think they want any of that.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:01:39

Marital boot camp yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 1:01:42

There you go Just regular boot camp.

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:01:44

I think that’s good. I could see you guys starting some sort of the outdoors where you bring people together that you guys like or of like mind and for singles, and then they get to play in adventures and you guys could teach them how a couple dynamics or something like that. That’s not going to go well at all no. This is not. That could be really really hard.

Shan Riggs: 1:02:10

You’re like no Very interesting, there’d be some good stories.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:02:13

They’re not committed people are like I am out of here. This was so good so they can find you on your website. What about social media?

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 1:02:21

That’s probably the best place to find us, or I can show you. We both have unique names.

Shan Riggs: 1:02:26

Yeah.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 1:02:26

You can always just look for us that way. Yeah, just, she’s the only Josh one in the world, and I’m one of the few Shan rigged as a self.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:02:35

Wow See, that’s another reason they belong together. I’m telling you so good.

Shan Riggs: 1:02:40

I know people think he’s Josh and I’m Shan, right.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 1:02:42

Right.

Shan Riggs: 1:02:45

To be clear.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:02:46

Yeah, and we will, of course, drop all of this into show notes so people can just click and find you, but all right. Well, thank you so much for spending some time with us. It’s so good to see both of your beautiful faces again, and I hope that we do get to do some adventures together. I’m totally game, totally game.

Joshuaine (Josh) Grant: 1:03:05

Right.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:03:07

Paul, you want to wrap this?

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:03:08

up. Yeah, yes, well, mind our beautiful listeners, my dear.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:03:13

I need to always remind them that how your life feels is more important than how it looks, and you guys are one of the best examples I know. Power couple all the way.

Coach Polly Mertens: 1:03:22

And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.

Coach Samantha Pruitt: 1:03:26

All right, Thanks guys. We’ll see you soon. Bye remains.