This is the Almost Famous podcast with iHeartRadio.
Okay, so joining us today. This is Bob and Trista for Almost Famous Ogs and in preparation for the big premiere on Wednesday, and with the show starting, I'm trying to get all of my fellow castmates on Special Forces World's Toughest Test to come on and chat about the experience. And Nathan, you're our number our second guest, and I'm
I'm so oh was for Stephen. Stephen Baldwin came on and she added with us and I'm so excited to have you, I mean, hello, talk about a career and the perfect kind of preparation for this season of Special Forces. I mean in a way, in a little.
Bit at least from the previous I'm seeing. Yeah, you've got a definitive, a definitive upswing for your the first things that they're showing on the previews. Man, it's such a pleasure to meet you. And can you say thanks for your service to an Olympian? I think you can, right.
I don't know, I mean they're probably not super well deserved compared to those in the courses. Yeah, I mean it was the privilege was truly online. I mean like I still kind of pinch myself, like what, like I got to live this life and like just chase my dreams and then like live it as like.
A professional for a while. It was insane.
Yeah, well, my wife was very excited that I'd be in I'm Bob by the way, so nice to meet you. So my wife was very excited that I'd be interviewing you today because she's also a cal Berkeley grad.
Gore's excellent years.
Yes, she's much younger than me. So she just turned forty. I don't know if I'm even allowed to say that, but so she would have.
Been I don't even know what years that would have been, to be honest, early two thousands.
I think.
And we may we definitely we probably know people who know we have mutual connections, but I probably missed each other a little bit.
I think.
So, Yeah, she was a skiing snowboard team person and I did not know that.
Oh yeah, that's so crazy.
Yeah, she was in there.
The ski snow team they are like they are incredible, Like the fact that they can somehow pass their classes with the schedule that they run through in the winter, it's just like, give me a break. They drive up there, they ski and snowboard, then they don't sleep, and then they ski and snowboard again, and they drive it back and I'm like.
It's insane.
Yeah, they it's I mean, she loved it, like I absolutely loved it. You know, her memories of being there are pretty spectacular. So we always whenever we're you know, in northern California, we got to swing by campus and then we go to that that little downtown area which is right near you guys. It has like the pizza place where they just tell you what the pizza is today and that's what you're eating.
Ye sliver. Yeah, Oh my god, I love that place.
There's like a line around the corner every day and you know you got to get there at like nine am to get pizza by noon, and it's crazy.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, it's a great place. It's a great, great place.
Awesome.
Well, thank you for joining us.
So we want to talk to you, obviously about special Forces and all that in entails. Even though we can't talk about what specifically happens and how long people stay and those kind of things, but we can talk about the details and so much that people saw in the trailers. Holy cow, Yes, first. I mean I was like, oh my gosh, they're showing that. So so I would love to know how you got asked And did you know anyone going on the show before you got there?
Yeah, yeah, good question. It just came through my agent.
I'm gonna I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it probably wanted Michael to join, but my agency is the agency that represents me as the same agency that actually the same agency that represents him represents me.
I don't know which way I knew. I need a phrasey yeah, I just I just taggle on for the ride. I'm sure he had something else exciting going on.
And they're like, but hey, we had this other guy that's, you know, pretty good at swimming too, So how we take a look.
And that's kind of how it came through.
And you know, at first, like we had we still have two young kids, and we're like, wait, how many days on the road, Like that's like kind of a
logistic like pretty pretty difficult. My wife's like she also is like has a full time job, So like we weren't really quite sure if it was gonna, you know, fit our family, and then it just like we kind of pieced it together, figured out we had a lot of wonderful help and grandparents and things to you know, give me the chance to go and have that awesome experience.
So yeah, that's that's how I kind of came through.
And I think I'm really interested to hear how everybody kind of did this because everybody's timeline.
I think we're pretty different. I had.
I had a pretty good amount of time, plenty of time to prepare obviously, Like you know, I'm used to these four year cycles, So if I had four years to prepare, I would, but you know, I had something like two months or something like that, So it was it.
Was still goodat for me.
Yeah, I mean that it is. It is something the preparation, and I wish I would have done more of it because, as you know, for me, the really the hardest part of this whole experience was the in between the tasks running with our burken our rocks, whatever you want to call them, running with those giant things on our backs. And for you it's I mean, you're what six three six.
Four six sixty six.
Okay six three dwarfs when you're when you're that tall, I'm five to two so you know, it's six three sixty six whatever it is. Well, when you're six six and you're carrying a thirty five pound pack, it's probably not as traumatizing to your body as it is for a five to two, you know, smaller person. But gosh, that was the hard part for me. And you know that because you helped me. Oh my gosh, he's one of my angels, Bob, he helped me.
I love it.
I mean he was literally holding my hand or my own.
I'm so drying. No, it's so kind.
I know, man, I'm glad you were there for her, sir, thank you.
It really is like they're not pulling me punch us, you.
Know, like people like people are thinking like, hey, maybe they'll like adjust it for me or you know, well we'll try to try to make it a little bit different, but it's just like no, and like.
They it's just it is what it is. Yeah.
I mean, I weigh two hundred and thirty pounds walking around normally, so like a forty pound rucksack is really a pretty not It's not like by any means, but it's a pretty insignificant, like percentage of my body weight compared to someone who's smaller than me. Like, if you really were to scale that up, I mean, I'd be carrying over one hundred pounds or something.
So it's not.
I mean I felt for some of the smaller competitors, just competitors, I don't know, I don't know, participants everybody, right, just a competition is like as cheesy as it sounds, like, this is definitely like a competition against yourself.
Like there's just no way to remove the cheesiness from that. But it's like so.
True, totally so true. It is so true, and I like that it's you know, like within yourself because you really have to push yourself for yourself. That's kind of one of the things that I was drawn to the show about because if it was a competition against each other, I knew I would be like, Okay, well I'm going to be the slim Pickens, I'm going to be the last one. Show isn't at the playground, you know, Like, but the fact that we can do this for ourselves
and have this opportunity. You're so right, you you worded it perfectly.
I'm just curious.
You know, you said something earlier that I thought was really interesting when you said you had like two months to prepare and and I don't know, I don't actually know Trista what your timeline was.
But how do you prepare?
Like are you just is it one of those things where you know, especially for you as an olympian, are you focusing on the things that you don't do every day? Because I mean, obviously you you know, a swimming situation is not gonna you know, You're not gonna be a struggle for you. So are you just thinking about like every like movie you've ever watched, like Platoon, and you're like, Okay, I'm gonna hike hills.
I'm kind of you know, like what do you do?
I don't even know how to prepare?
Yeah, I wish I would have been more thoughtful about it, to be honest, I really I personally was most concerned about the running part because I am a horizontal athlete, Like I am so used to being in the pool in like a weird, like kind of like role buoyancy situation that might like joints are not really made for being vertical and carrying that load that rock would have definitely if I didn't prepare for those two months, my knees and hips would have been really messed up even
after a couple of days.
So I did. I did that, and I kind of like I progressively overloaded it.
You know, I only started with you know, rocking around for a mile and took a day off, and then I went another mile and then like increased that load until it just wasn't that big of a deal anymore. But then the other training, I mean, I just stayed in shape, knowing that like you know, I have, I have a pretty robust like cardiovascular and pulmonary system that I built up over thirty years of swimming that would hopefully.
Carry me through. And yeah, I do, I do wish I would have.
Like looking back and trying not to you know, give give anything away, but like probably should talk to some more people and like designed like different scenarios based off of their experience, or like found a coach.
That was like prepared. It's really like, you know, I found someone who was maybe.
Training people or like special horses or Navy seal like X Navy sealers preparing the next generation of that, and be like kind of get a little bit of that because it really is so different than sports, right, the experience, and I think that there was no way of me knowing that without experiencing it, So yeah, I should have done a better job of asking for help.
I was asked. I think it was in February and we left in May, and but I don't know if we talked about this, bob. But medically they were not going to clear me because yeah, so like a month in, maybe a couple of weeks in, I went through like the medical clearance and I've had lower back surgery affusion, and they kept saying, well, we just don't know if you're going to be able to how would you be getting pushed off a boat? Is what they were telling me. And I was like, what do you mean like a
moving boat? I don't know if anyone's going to be well okay with that? So basically I had to fight, Like I got doctors who did my surgery involved saying like like telling them the medical guys over in the UK because the production company is over in the UK, telling them, you know, she's fine, she's great, she had this surgery and now she's amazing, she was better than she was before kind of thing. And so during that time when I was it was questionable, I actually stopped training,
which I shouldn't have. I am so superstitious, and I was like, I'm not going to train because then they're not going to prove me to go on the show. So I totally screwed myself and those moments that I just mentioned, like Nathan was one of my angels, the running part, because I've never been a runner. I was fifty one when we filmed. Like, I haven't been working out consistently. You know, I'm not an olympian, I'm not
an ex NFL guy. I'm not a pro serf for like, all of these people that were on the show have like some kind of athletic background. Even Ali was crushing it in the gym before, like she was working out three times a day.
Wow.
And anyway, so I share that sentiment Nathan in that I should have. Obviously I should have still been training when they were when we were going through the stuff to get me approved but are cleared. But yeah, I
just wish I would. And I actually talked to a few people, actually two people who had been on the show, Hannah Brown, who was also a bachelorette, and then Body Miller is friends of friends of friends of mine, and he was at an event and so I got to talk to him in person, and he thought that they were going to change the relativity of the weight of
the of the rocks for people. He was like, they've talked about changing the weight, so maybe they would make it, you know, less of an issue for the smaller people. But obviously that did not change.
You know.
But you know, part of me is like, yeah, I, in all fairness, yes, but I have two friends who are Navy Seals. They were on Seal Team six, like they're legit, and one of them is still kind of involved with Navy Seals. And he said that a lot of women don't make it through Special Forces just for biology, like the way that our bodies are shaped, and we're usually smaller, and you know anyway that women don't necessarily do well in the Special Forces because of just the
like how our bodies are made. So I feel like, if we truly were going to Special Forces training, they're not going to freaking change anything for women, So why should we get any special treatment?
You know?
Yeah, Yeah, that's two sides of that coin. I mean it just like it just would have been I think it would have been nice to.
Special Forces is hard in so many different ways, right, Yeah, so many different ways, but you would have experienced something that was extraordinarily difficult if that rock was only twenty five pounds for you instead of forty, Like, yeah, I definitely believe that. So for the sake of, like, you know, the narrative and the storyline, maybe, But but then again there is another aspect where it's like when people ask me, are like how do people ask you all the time?
Like is it real? Is it? Like? Are they how serious is it?
And I'm like they like made it feel and like the second that you exited the show, did it feel like you came out of the matrix?
Like what's going on?
No?
Honestly, like when you are.
In there, you are like we are the only freaking people around. There are only cows. When you're in there, you just feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. It is only you and like the DS and and you're like fellow people on special horses. And then like the second you're done, it's like, oh, there's a car like a Mercellan.
Are you tips and stuff?
Like there's like hundreds of us all over here in this tent that's just completely hidden and we're just making absolutely zero noise somehow from everybody that's in the show.
It is. It is a trip, man, it is a trip.
You're right. But it's very similar to like all reality. Like I literally just did an interview for a girl yesterday whose friends were actually friends and friends. I don't need to get into it, but she's doing something a thesis project, and so she was asking all these questions of reality television and how real is it? And you know, all the same questions that everyone asks. And it's the same, like there are producers who are walking around on Bachelor, Bachelorette.
You might be on a helicopter in a fancy date and not a helicopter that you're jumping onto from a moving boat. But but it is. It is very much unscripted, like you have certain as like dates on Bachelor, like that you're going, you know, you're going to these tasks and the cameras are just following you. The drones, I'm sure there were drones. Were there drones? Do you remember if there were drones?
Oh, there had to be some of the camera angles that even the previous drones.
Yeah yeah, yeah, so oh actually I think I do remember. Do you remember the drones? The for I'm not giving anything away. The very first day on the boat before the ship went down, I remember drones coming over the boat and we were like, oh, shit's about to get real, Like we got cameras.
That's funny. I do remember that. I do remember that.
Yeah, yeah, crazy, So that's insane. That was what was the hardest part for you, because obviously it's not just physical. There's there's the whole mental part, emotional.
I feel like, yeah, man, without trying to give anything away, I feel like I was just starting to hit my groove because I was just so nervous and trying to figure out feel everything going on, like right at the beginning, and like there's just this like weird thing because I just have not experienced that much, like adrenaline just constantly coursing.
To my veins and like a long time, really long time, and it was just so like.
It was like in the Olympic world. It's so acute and you learn to manage it. Like you are four hours out from your Olympic final race. It's like you're letting it come up. You're letting it. You're letting this excitement enter your body, experience it, experience it, let it hour you essentially, and then the moments after that race, like everything you do is to shut it off, Like
it's kind of like a dimmer switch. You're gonna like you're gonna go warm down, You're gonna do like some breath work, you're gonna do like all.
These different things to get your body in like the recovery mode.
But like this whole thing, Like for me, I was just freaked out the whole time.
I was worried about them yelling at us. I was worried about like getting.
Like getting like caught out in the middle of the night doing this, doing that, Like I I didn't learn how. I didn't like practice that skill of like kind of calming down after like the craziness.
And then like.
Towards like the end of my time there is like when I started realizing, oh, like you know, the car rides are you know, relatively calm, Like as long as I'm semi ready and like my rough is packed, like I can close my eyes, I can kind of relax just a little bit do what I can.
Did you ever feel like you could, Were you ever packed and ready and you felt like you could close your eyes? Because I could never fee I never felt that. I don't.
I was closed. Honestly.
At one point, I was like, I am not sure that the perfection that they like can come to expect is even possible. Was like maybe just maybe they really just choose to like punish us when they want to there it's too easy.
Right now, I'm gonna I'm gonna find something, and like it's not possible. Time my shoes right over left and like someone else tied their left over right like okay, punish ups like we deserve it.
I'm sorry, Like I kind of I I eventually kind of came to that conclusion.
Maybe I'm wrong, but that's that's where it came for me. Yeah, And to your point, I mean I definitely did not.
I did not, like I would call any of the times that like my eyes were closed at.
Night, like just like meditation, not so much actual sleep. It was just like not even close to real real sleep. I yeah, not, I didn't.
Was it because you were just like thinking they're going to wake you up, so you didn't even want Like I'm like that when I have an early morning flight.
You know, I truly didn't know what to expect. I mean, there was just so many emotions going through your head. Man, this is such a cool experience. I wonder what's going to happen next. Oh my god, are they going to crush us?
Like?
Wait, is that like someone's snorting right now? Oh, is somebody getting up to the feet Like, Oh, the cameras haven't moved.
But are they still on? You know, all the all.
The different things that like that just go through your head that you just there's just it's a lot. We're also in this big side there's like rat I'm sure there were mice and rats and spiders everything.
Oh everywhere everywhere. But I have to point out, so Nathan six ' six and we're laying on standard cots. Did you didn't have like an extended cot, did you?
I think cam and I I can't remember, but I think they might have put like an extra like egg crate or something apple crate at the end of it.
Maybe, yes, yes, the crates at the end of the bed. And weren't you guys like you guys were across from each.
Other each other? Yeah, we were across.
Oh my gosh, like because because I'm tiny and I can just crawl up in a ball pretty much anywhere, but for someone who's six ' six and being able to sleep on those cots is hard regardless. So if you're larger than the cot, can't be that fun, you know.
And you guys are all on the same like bear type situation. You're on that same little room.
Yeah yeah, and you couldn't leave unless you had a buddy.
That's right, that's right again. One of those things that I mean I meant to ask. I meant to ask at the reunion, like did that loosen up or not?
Because like officially you were not you were not supposed to leave without a buddy, But at least those first couple days you.
Could kind of get away with it a little bit. People started getting a little bit looser with it. They kind of like scurry and do their thing.
I know, I know. I was always like, oh crap, because I am such a rule follower, and I was like, no, don't get us in trouble by leaving on your own. Don't go pee by yourself. You always had to have a buddy. So we were in this one room was our barracks or what they call it accommodations, and then there was like a kind of like a like a workout area if you will in the middle. But it wasn't a workout area. It's like torture chamber, you know, Yeah,
the mud pit. And then there's a warming room because we were in way hills and we were constantly wet, and so you had to like you had two sets of clothes and you had to keep one of them dry at all times, so you had to keep those
in the warming room. And to get like prime real estate is like worth a lot in the warming room because there's like three little what do you call them, like little fire pit stove, Yeah, and they to get a place by those was like, you know, you're fighting for your life just to get your clothes.
Dry, and you're like you're balancing this thing where like you want to get it really close to the stove, but you don't want to lay on fire.
Socks, especially putting the socks over the like the stove door on the door.
I mean, everybody, that just sounds brutal to me.
What did your kids think? Did you tell your kids before you left or did you wait when you got back? And how how do they feel do they know about it? How do they feel about it now?
But too young? I mean, my yes was just a little over three at the time, so yeah, yeah, it was just kind of like Dade was gone for a little bit. The youngest probably didn't.
The youngest definitely, like I'm kind of the default parent to the youngest one, so she missed me a lot. But yeah, and I talk too, because even Wednesday, like when this like when the premiere comes out, I'm we're gonna they're not really old enough to watch it either, go do some of these things.
So I think it's really just going to kind of be in the back pocket.
You know, when the time is right, maybe we'll sit down and we'll we'll watch it and uh and see what they think then how about you.
I so all my my whole I mean, my kids are older, obviously, they're fifteen and seventeen. So I talked to them about it before because when I was trying to figure out whether or not to do it, I wanted to know what my kids thought. And my son especially was like, cool, like you know, go do that,
that'd be cool. He actually is interested in going into the military possibly after high school, so and Navy Seals, And I honestly wonder because that is like a recent discovery about him that he wants to go into the Navy seals, and it was one of his hockey buddies. His dad was a Navy seal, and that's where I think it started. But I wonder if doing this show maybe inspired him. I'd love to, you know, it'd be interesting.
I certainly think at least a little bit, and maybe some of the research that he did.
Watching the other I mean, the other.
Season still give me goosebumps, Like if I ever like if I'm ever like hurting, like walking on like one of those days that you don't want to wake up and go to the gym, like on the way there, you just throw it on. It's ten minutes of it. It's just a little bit little little goose Yeah, I know this, I mean, this is going to be I didn't realize that the episode is gonna be two hours.
Two hours, yes, so each episode is two hours and they're only doing five episodes. So I think that's why they did a two hour show. But if you think about it, so Bob and I being from the world of reality television, it's you know, part of our normal uh vernacular. If you're will, if you will. But but they they put so much on the cutting room floor, Like two hours is really is so minimal compared to what we experienced, Like, I really wonder what will make the show Jesus past.
How many episodes did they do?
Was it always two hours? Five? I do think it's usually one hour per day? Is that right? Yeah?
Okay, I think so. I think they usually have one hour episodes and it's ten episodes. Okay, so this time they just it's the same amount of time. It's just a longer episode in one yeah, yeah.
Just I think to your point, like I am, I'm so curious because like the way that everything happened, like it wasn't a linear timeline though, like people dropping out, it.
Was like insanity.
And then I think they're the slowed down a little bit so they might be able to dilate that time that everyone was there just a little bit to kind of.
Tell the stories because there were so many, so many interesting ones. But how they do it, I'm not I don't know. You got you all know if it's possible a lot better than I do.
I would think, Like the biggest fear that people have a lot of times when they see themselves on TV is you know what they're doing in that moment right like oh my god, Like you know, if you're if you're like look at the camera and you got you know, like stuff running out of your notes or.
Something, you got something in your teeth.
Yeah.
So like when you saw yourself and you saw when you saw the package they put together for you, were you you know, were you like happy about it or did you look at it and you're just like, oh my god, it looks so bad, or you know, cause you're used to seeing yourself on the on the podium getting a gold medal.
You know.
Man, I actually just add of necessity, I stopped watching my own interviews, stopped watching myself on the podium. I just experienced it through myself because I really I dialed in how to compete, how to train, how to how to do my swimming thing, Yeah.
As perfectly as I could.
And there were a couple of experiences where I was paying attention to what was going on the outside, I was being perceived et cetera that affected me and I'm like, what what what Like that's completely out of my control.
So I stopped paying attention and and for this, honestly, I I was going to ask you all, like how how to do it like for me or do just everybody have their own different way that they that they watch because like I am going to do like a little viewing party with some close friends and I was like, no, I don't want to do this massive thing, Like I don't want like every person from preschool there at the same time, like like maybe just some of my closest
friends who see me in like vulnerable situations and been there through through those tough times, just because like you know, for me, it's it's it's like there's a personal aspect of it there, like and on top of that, like they had footage from US twenty four to seven. They can make us look whatever they want, so it is for me, I don't know. I'm just kind of walking through it with like an open heart and open mind, kind of kind of putting my trust in like the producers and just.
Saying it is, it is going to be what it is.
And then even if it's a perception that I don't necessarily agree with or love, like I'm going to be with those who know me the best, who know that well they love me for some reason, and it's it's not because there are lots.
Of reasons yeah, I think that's a great perspective to have. I can share the same thing. But I think that's how you get through it is you know deep down who are your people and who love you, and they're always going to love you no matter how you look on this show. You know, the show will be temporary, It'll come and go. People get hyped about it, and then you know, twenty years later they might still be talking about it. But as when it comes to my wedding.
But and you know all that. But but I think as long as you stay grounded in your truth and why you did it, and and I don't think you can look bad on this show. I'm just going to say that I don't think you can look bad.
Yeah, I'll tell you as someone who's not been on it or not gone through what you guys have gone through. But I definitely have seen the previews, and I've seen elements of the show in the past.
I will definitely be watching this one, by the way.
But I think you have to write that's the right recipe for sure, Like whenever you put yourself out there, you know you're going to have the people who would never be in that situation in a million years who are going to have opinions about it. So, like you said, you put your blinders on and stay focused and you know, on your family, your friends, the people that you love.
And don't worry about the rest of the noise. Right.
But at the end of the day, it's like, I think it's a different world today than when Trista and I were both you know, on the Bacherette and then The Bachelor. It's like, you know, nowadays, it's like everything is out there, you know, it's like and it's all, like you said, twenty four hours of footage and you're gonna have something in your teeth, You're gonna have something on your face. I mean, you guys are in the middle of it all, you know, going through the most
brutal training and everything that anyone's ever done. So I think from that perspective, it's going to be amazing viewing, like from a from a viewership perspective. And I just I have nothing but admiration for everyone that signed up to do this show because I'm looking at it from the standpoint of, man, could I put myself out there and do that? And I mean I've known Tristan for twenty years and It's like when she told me she did it, I'm.
Like, oh my god, how could you do this? Like this is insane?
D you know because in my mind I'm like, would I do it if they asked me? I want to believe I would, but part of me is like, I don't think I could get through it, man, I mean, you know, I just don't think I could.
So I can only.
Imagine what you guys are going to be experiencing emotionally watching it too.
So it's gonna be awesome for y'all.
I think I think it will be.
I don't know, like, did you like did you have you been to a place emotionally in your like real life in the last ten years where you were there?
Wow?
I was not. I have never been challenged emotionally like that in my entire life. The only thing that comes close is it took me a really long time to get pregnant. That was hard. I had a really difficult delivery with my first and then I had a seizure
about seven years ago on vacation. It's we don't even need to get into it, but that that the seizure was probably like because it was like I and I could have died in my delivery too, but I faced it like I actually have a whole thing where I think it was a near death experience because I went to this place of white euphoria and it. Yeah, so I feel like I was very close to death in
that moment. And that is the only comparison, because I feel like you are pushed so freaking hard on the show, and not just like in trying to keep up in like the guy's yelling at you. You know, you see in the trailer where Q is like right next to me, like and I've told people about this, how I'm trying to get out of the beach. I'm trying to leave and he is literally right there being like you shouldn't
be here, hurry up. Everyone's waiting for you, like all you know, all the things and all the things that I'm already telling myself in my head like I shouldn't be here. I'm a burden, like all you know, all of these things. But I think that's why they do it. Tell me if you feel the same way, because so in the trailer, you hear me say, you know, I'm talking to my devil and my angel on my shoulder, right and so human nature. It's human nature. I feel
like to doubt yourself. You're gonna have these doubts, like the devil is constantly saying, you can't keep up with everybody, You should not be here. Why are you doing this show? This is stupid, you know, And so you're telling yourself all of these things already. I think that they tell
you those things as not inside your body. They're telling you so that you can say, Hugh, I'm gonna I'm gonna prove you wrong, and so you can find an inner strength to fight against somebody else, because it's really hard to fight against your self sometimes. But if you can put that like onus, on somebody else and be like, screw off, I'm gonna I'm gonna prove you wrong and I'm going to do this. How what's your What are your thoughts on that?
That's I love that. I think we probably we have really similar thoughts.
Ex that mine just come from this place of like physical performance, because that's like my entire life and like the lens of that through which I see everything.
And honestly I'm trying I'm.
Trying to kind of shift that perspective into maybe like more like real life things parenting and running business and all those sorts of things. But like for me, I mean there was just like I really had I after retiring, I didn't really realize.
Like how much I missed having a coach.
And like and I like journaled for like a day or two afterwards, and just like because I whatever whatever after I was, I can't because it kind of gives away.
When I when I understood, but.
I really realized that, Hey, like I along with other people, and I don't know if it's if it's to a greater degree than anybody, but a told people pleaser and then like once you find a safe place to be that because like in real life you're kind of like people pleaser. But like am I like is this too much? Is this like not enough? Like is this weird balance?
Like you're driving and you're like should I have like let that person go in front of me or not?
Like wait a minute, you know, and like but in this situation, it's just like I, I mean, I trusted the DS with my life, and I believed them when they said that they could bring you to a place that you've never been before.
And I think those two things like really brought me to a place where I was like, holy crap either right, like it.
Was it was crazy. I mean in one of the.
One of the moments, like I was carrying a log by myself and.
Like Billy was screaming at me to like brody, and I was like like turn it on the turbo.
And then I was like wait, hold up, like yet, like that's crazy because for me, I thought I was running as fast as I could Billy told me to turn on the turbo. But then there was it was a little devil in my head that was like yo, like you turn on the turbo too much, like.
You know what can happen?
And I think, like you talking about body a little bit, Like that's that's where my mind went because like a lot of the athletes do have this ability to like to go turbo a little bit to the point where they're going to hurt themselves.
So I like I turned it on. I started catching him, and.
Then I was like wait, hold on, Like that was a really cool thing, but like we're we're not done here yet. We might have like an hour or two longer of this, like let's just get this log too over there. But like that moment actually really sticks with me. As I like reflect on my time, then I'm like, in a way, I'm like, yeah, like I still got it, like that that little like extra gear is still there and it is so hard to reach when you're in a gym and where I work out.
Isn't necessarily a lot of young people.
That I go or something like I just don't have that, and like having that like oh that's right, like let's fucking go kind of spirit mentality was just so refreshing because the grind and absolute marathon of parenting two young children, you don't have a lot of the LFG moments except for like LFG exercise your patience more tonight.
I mean like last night, I think bedtime.
Took like over two hours and I slept on a twin bed speaking of a cot just because we're having some issues with climbing out of cribs and things.
Yeah, I have like LFG moments all the time for like bluey marathons and things like that, so I get it.
At least it is blue. Oh my gosh, we had to make the transition to blue. Like gosh, that's a whole other topic that we could talk about forever of the programming. That just automatically pops up now is absurd.
It's just like it's drugs and is drugs for my kids, and like I we try not to do. We just finished the holidays, Like forgive me sorry, I let them have some screen time, but like we've got to re let back in. Holy crap some of that. Yeah, it's just wild.
That's hard to do too, Okay. I love your perspective, and I feel like that is so true that had like thinking about that moment where Q is just yelling his head off at me, and I'm going, I'm crying the whole time, but I'm going, had it been real life, totally would have stopped and been like Ryan, can you carry my backpack?
You know?
And and I'll.
Get there when I get there, and I'm not going to cry about it, you know. But you're so right that I think that is one of my learning lessons looking back, and I love that. That's kind of what you've taken away too, is that you do have the capability to push yourself harder than you ever thought you could, right.
Yes, yes, and like figuring out how to get there because you can't go there every.
Day, you know.
That's that is how burnout happens, but like figuring out for yourself how you get yourself there and then what you need to do to recover it. When I talked to kids, all so I do. I still do canceling clanks for for swimmers all the time. And when I talked to I was like, it's the turbo button.
It really is.
It's like and and like I don't even know if that's still a thing on like PIFA, Like I'm talking about NBA JAM like two thousand and two. At this point, you got to figure out when you can press the turbo button, and then you got to figure out what fills your turbo.
Button back up again, you know. And and I think.
That was you know, that that was a we were we were in full on turbo mode there.
But yeah, yeah, but I feel like the turbo button was being pushed by somebody else and it was all on all the time.
Yeah, yeah, there was something like it was like those the time that we were spent just like you were learning so much about yourself and how to get there and how to experience it and.
How to harness the power of it. But like then yeah, when it's over, I'm like I'm good I'm good.
No more turbo button needed for I'm good.
I don't need a turbo button, no more, No more turbo button for me. Yeah, And I feel like that's just how you get as you get older, too. And so since I'm fifty one, I don't know I think Stephen is the oldest. Denise might. I think she's around my same age, but and I don't know how old
Mary it is. Anyway, my point was maybe I'm the oldest. No, I don't think I'm the oldest, but I feel like you have that kind of perspective, like I've lived my life, you know, I'm good, I'm setting my ways, like I know what I like, I know what I don't like, and running is something I don't like, and I'm doing a lot of it.
And I was going to ask too, like especially for you, Nathan, on this will because I think this might be and I hope this doesn't come off sexist, but it might be a guy thing. But like I always think like the Navy Seal team stuff as like the ultimate badassery out there, you know what I mean. So it's like in my mind, I mean, I watch every one of those shows, right, I watch you know, Jack Ryan, and I watch you know, every everything that comes out.
Any movie that's got anything to do with it, I'm on it.
And so when I like get curious about this stuff is because part of me thinks, like I always watch the show. My wife laughs at me all the time, she go, Okay, so now you think you're a spy. I'm like, yes, I think I could be a fantastic spy.
And so I'm gonna watch this show and I'm gonna be like, oh my god, I could I want to do this, like I want to see if I can do Was there any of that going into it where you were just so fired up to see, you know, especially having been an Olympic decorated Olympian thing like I got this, man, I'm gonna I'm gonna print that I can do this.
All day every day. Man, Yes, all of it, all of it. Yes, of course, of course, no doubt.
And that was like just waiting for the next challenge and like experiencing it and going through it and like oh man, like it's just like it's kind of like a little puzzle, like oh I mess up on this.
But next time I'm going to do this, I'm gonna be better. Okay, next, next up, I'm a little bit better. I'm a little bit better. I'm a little bit like the.
Same little thing in my head that just like made me tick for swimming and doing it so long. It was the same thing that kept me going in this too. It was just like I do I want to figure out how to get better, get better, get.
Better, like learn from learn from others around me.
I think that was like, you know, for me in like two thousand and eight, my experience at the Olympics was so interesting.
I was young.
I think I was the youngest male on the team. I was nineteen years old. I swam a pre LNS relay for the for one of the events, so I wasn't I'm not going to say it wasn't important. But without me there, the metal count wouldn't have changed at all.
But like, I got to see so many people do extraordinary things and do it in so many different ways, and I actually like think that I had a lot of that same kind of those same kind of feelings here where we just came from so many different aspects of life, but every single person there was so extraordinary and.
Like I think, like I don't know just what would you say, Like was the.
Like when you're like, what what do these people have in common?
Like what is it? And I think I have an answer, but I kind of want to hear yours first.
That's really interesting. I feel like I always felt like going through the interview process that the reason that they chose me, because clearly they're not choosing me to be that badass Navy seals person, but I feel like they were picking me at least. And I think this goes for everybody, that people out there can relate to each
one of us in different ways. So for me, I'm the like, you know, the mom of teenagers about to leave, figuring out what I want to do with my life when they're gone, and you know, everyone has their story, so I feel like it's we're all relatable in some way, shape or form, and we're just relatable in different ways.
I like that.
I think that's that's I think that's definitely true. And I think for me, I was I really am so taken maybe not taken back, but like I'm just inspired by everybody's agency in their life with everybody there, I think, and it's like I think it really is for me, and like, you know, there's I forgot who who wrote the book, but is his thesis and his parentise was like, it's luck.
It's it's luck.
You know, successful people is lucky. It's like, look, there certainly plays a.
Part in this. You know, I wouldn't have, you know, Olympic.
Gold medals in my closet if I didn't hit some you know, genetic like luckiness in my in my life. But there was an aspect of like taking advantage of that luck. And I think each and every one of us were able to do that in our lives. And I thought that's seeing the different like the different ways that it happened was just so so cool and being able to like.
Be around it, like, you know, I wish I was just told spend more time together.
I totally agree. I have been pushing for them, like
I'll talk to publicity. So I'm leaving today to go to LA to do a like a little bit of press also, and and I'm like, I just want to get people together, Like I keep asking if we can get people together, could we do like a a reunion for the for the finale, And maybe if they don't put it together, maybe we should just do it on our own, Like wherever we do it, maybe we should just do it on our own, because like on our text thread, you know, Christy was like, I'm having a viewing,
you know, screening, and I'm having one too, actually here on Wednesday. Mine's a little bigger than like just close friends. It'll probably be like one hundred people or something. And I think the Fox affiliate is coming from Denver. So if this was Ryan on the show, my husband, it would be totally different. But like you said, we're all different and I just want to celebrate it.
Right Ryan would be watching it with the kids.
Yeah, totally, he would just be watching. Sorry, we have to wrap, but I feel like, you know, I would love to get together as well. I learned so much from people. I was so inspired. I I really feel like I bonded with with everyone in different ways. But I am just I know, I know that you share the sentiment. Just so grateful to have been part of it.
Oh my gosh, like truly truly.
It's again it sounds the cheesy line in your life, but like just forever grateful and and just like what, I don't know.
What I do to deserve this, you know, right? A lot?
Well, I can say what you did. You were a freaking celebrated Olympic athlete and you're a rock star and a really kind human being. So thank you for being one of my angels. Thank you for coming on the Almost Famous OG podcast and chatting with us about Special Forces World's toughest test. Watch it on Wednesday.
Yeah.
Thanks, Nathan, with such a pleasure meeting you man. Looking forward to watching the show.
A pleasure was mine. Thanks for having me. Guys.
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