Hardship, Resilience & Competing at the Highest Level | Ken Rideout

**Ken Rideout** (0:00)
I had tried the Mediocre Road in life, and it didn't pay very well, meaning it wasn't very fulfilling. The only things that have been fulfilling to me as a person, as a man, has had come with suffering and struggling.

**Andy Galpin** (0:14)
The science and practice of enhancing human performance for sport, play, and life.
Welcome to Perform.
I'm Dr. Andy Galpin. I'm a professor and scientist and the executive director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. Today, I'm speaking with Ken Rideout. Ken is an author, elite endurance athlete, and a tremendous storyteller. In this conversation, you're going to learn a lot and probably at most, be incredibly inspired. Ken's journey from really tough circumstances as a child, to early career success, making millions of dollars, and falling into a decade-long battle with drug addiction and coming out of all that, breaking records in endurance sports and having a successful life, is as inspirational as anything I've ever been a part of. I was lucky to get an early copy of his book. I read the entire thing, almost. I saved the last couple of pages till today in one sitting. Ken is different than anyone I've ever had on Perform. You're going to learn a lot of tactical stuff if you're into endurance, racing and running, but you're going to walk away entertained, I guarantee you that, and also incredibly inspired. The lessons he imparted are valuable to all of us, regardless of whether you'll run a race in your life now, or ever in the future. I found it valuable. I know you'll get a ton of this as well. So please enjoy today's conversation with Ken Rideout.
Mr. Ken Rideout, it is a huge pleasure to have you. This is a very special episode for many reasons. First, I've never had anyone even remotely close to you on the show, and I think within about three minutes, anyone listening is going to understand exactly what I mean.

**Ken Rideout** (1:49)
Well, thank you for having me. It's a huge honor to be on such a prominent show, and like I said to you earlier, I'm sure this will be the least technical conversation you've ever had on the Perform podcast because I'm going to disappoint everyone with my lack of information about heart rate, all my training metrics, but I can tell you perceived effort.

**Andy Galpin** (2:09)
Yeah, yeah. Well, you're going to give us a lot of information and a lot of inspiration, for sure. I read your entire book except for the last five pages in one day.

**Ken Rideout** (2:21)
You're the best.

**Andy Galpin** (2:22)
I intentionally did not read the last five pages. I actually wanted to save it till after our conversation.

**Ken Rideout** (2:26)
Okay.

**Andy Galpin** (2:27)
So I don't know how your story ends.

**Ken Rideout** (2:28)
Oh my God, I love the, I think the last five pages are the best. Like, of course, I sent that last, that last chapter when I was writing the book to my wife, the true story, and I'm sitting in my office, she's sitting on the kitchen and I thought I heard her like sniffling and sobbing and I come out and I'm like, yo, what's up? Did you like it? And she's like, oh my God, I know how the story ends. And I was still captivated. And I was like, perfect. I told my editor and he was like, well, if they cry, they buy. So you've obviously hit on something. So you're doing the right thing. But I loved the last five pages really, to me, drives everything home. There's so many lessons in that.

**Andy Galpin** (3:01)
I teared up many times reading your book. Like very, very, you and I have an insanely similar background.
Like we'll probably discuss later, but.

**Ken Rideout** (3:11)
In a lot of ways, I'm sorry to hear that.

**Andy Galpin** (3:12)
No, no, no. In many ways, it's polar opposite. And in many, it's very, very similar.
But I actually want to start today with my introduction to you. Okay. And so I'm going to tell you this story, and then I'm going to let you tell everyone else your side of this story.

**Ken Rideout** (3:26)
Okay.

**Andy Galpin** (3:27)
So I remember actually probably sitting in this very room a couple of years ago or so, and our mutual friend who's the third body in this room here, Rob, told me, it came up somehow. He's like, I have this crazy friend. And he goes, now picture everything I'm about to tell you in this thick Boston accent.
I'm like, okay. And he's like, I've got this crazy friend. He's running 150 mile race in Mongolia. It's like 100 miles in, runs up next to some guy, looks at him and just goes, you know the funny thing is, I never get tired. And then bolts off and the guy falls out and quits the race.