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Scot: All right. Is this thing on? Check one, check two, check three. Troy, are you there?

Troy: I'm here. Can you hear me?

Scot: Yeah.

Troy: You hear me good. Okay. Made me nervous there.

Scot: Caleb. Check-in, Caleb. Are you there?

Caleb: Hey, I'm here.

Scot: All right. I guess I'm the one that makes a bigger deal out of the check. You guys just like Troy is like, yeah.

Troy: Here, here. Exactly.

Scot: "Who Cares About Men's Health?" The podcast that provides information, inspiration, and motivation to better understand and engage in your health so you can feel better today and in the future. My name is Scot Singpiel. I'm the manager of thescoperadio.com, and I care about men's health.

Troy: And I'm Dr. Troy Madsen. I'm an emergency physician at the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ of Utah, and I also care about men's health.

Caleb: My name is Caleb. I'm a certified strength and conditioning coach. I work at PEAK Health and Fitness in the College of Health here at the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ of Utah, and boy, howdy, do I care about men's health?

Scot: And it's great to have you on today, Caleb. I'm going to clap for you. Troy's probably not. He's a little harder to win over than I am. I tend to give it up to the guests right away. So we'll find out at the end of the podcast how you did if Troy gives you a clap so.

Troy: Yeah. Here we go. Yeah, we'll see if you're earning the clap. You got to earn the clap.

Caleb: I respect that. I respect that.

Troy: Thank you.

Scot: Getting back into our fitness routine, so I talked to Caleb last week at PEAK Fitness. I went in, Troy, Caleb saw me in compression shorts last week because I went in for one of those bod pods. You know, those are those tests. You sit in that little like canister and it checks your body fat, right?

Troy: I thought you were going to say that's like your usual workout gear. You just walk around in compression shorts.

Scot: Oh, man. I wish. No.

Troy: I was going to say I'm glad I have not spent more time in the gym with you, but yeah.

Scot: I was chatting with Caleb though when we were at PEAK Fitness, and he had an interesting story, I thought, that it would be really worth sharing with everybody because I think with COVID, our routines have been flipped upside down. A lot of us, that means . . . me especially, that means that my fitness routine, like I haven't strength-trained since March, I'm pretty inconsistent with exercise, and I want to get back into that fitness routine.

Troy: Because that was really a big thing for you too, I remember. You were doing strength training several times a week, and you had your walking routine. It sounds like it's . . . I mean, it's got to be tough to have that drop off like that.

Scot: Yeah. Well, it is and it's not. That's one of the things I liked about Caleb's story is I could kind of relate to what he went through.

Troy: Yeah.

Scot: So Caleb, let's get to your story. So I asked Caleb the question, how has COVID disrupted your fitness routine? And your answer was . . .

Caleb: Entirely.

Scot: Yeah. So first of all, give us a little background of like what you used to do for fitness and staying in shape and some of the activities that you did.

Caleb: I actually used to play professional rugby, and I was playing professional rugby until literally COVID hit and canceled our season. You know, I was working at 24 Hour Fitness as a personal trainer, I was teaching fitness classes for seniors through the county, Salt Lake County, and then I would go to practice and we would train and we would bang some weights, we'd bang some bodies on the field online and, you know, late into the evening and then it was, you know, back home and it was rinse repeat for the next day. So yeah, I went from having a serious purpose, having a serious goal specifically in the realm of fitness, I went from having a very serious accountability process to having nothing.

It was actually really nice for a hot second there. For a while it was like, man, I'm being able to sit down and relax for a second here, this is kind of great. But you know, as that spring wore on, I was like, you know, if I'm going to play rugby again next season, if this is going to go, I can't do this for too much longer. I got to take advantage of this time, you know. This is a good time for me to be in the gym to be working out. And so the gyms opened up again, oh, I don't know what was that? Late June, something like that and one day I was getting ready to go back into the gym and the general manager for the team that I was playing for called and he said, you know, he's like, "Hey, well, so we as a club, we're actually going to go a different direction. We're not going to resign you, but you can, you know, you're a free agent now. You can sign . . . you're free to talk with whoever or field any emails or phone calls from any other club," and that was kind of the point where I was like, "Well, you know, I wonder if this isn't just kind of the right time to hang it up."

I was getting ready to start school here at the U, a fully funded and paid graduate assistantship program, you know, get my masters. Basically, get paid to get my master's degree and I was like, you know, I don't know if I can . . . I don't know if I can turn down a free master's degree for a few couple of more years of rugby. So I decided to officially retire, and it was kind of funny because right after that, I was on the way, I was getting ready to go to the gym that day and my, you know, the general manager calls and I have that conversation with him and I thought about it for about, about eight seconds and I, you know, I was like maybe this is the time to hang it up. And I just slid my shoes right back off and I slid right back into the couch. And then all of a sudden now any accountability I had for getting back into the gym was completely gone. And so from late June until, you know, early August, mid-August, I didn't do anything, and that was an active choice at that point. That was just like, that was me just deciding like I don't want to . . . I don't have anything to do here.

Scot: I was shocked when we were talking before, Caleb, a little bit because, you know, you were doing so much in the realm of health and fitness, and then COVID came along and it just all kind of came to a screeching halt and you said it was even a decision like I'm not going to exercise for a while. And you said you just really need to have that thing to drive you. Otherwise you just tend to sit around, which I can relate to because that's me. Like I think by nature, I'm lazy. I'm not saying that you are, but by nature, I think I'm lazy unless I have a reason to go exercise. I just won't. I would just as soon sit around, I think, and not do anything. Is that kind of your case as well?

Caleb: Yeah, I definitely identify with that. I mean, you know, as you can tell by . . . You know, you don't just start working 17-hour days just like for the fun of it. You know, that's kind of a process that you grow. And so, I mean, I had been doing that, you know, working tons of hours every day, every day of the week for, you know, I was in the Marine Corps for five years and that was a whole nother . . . That was, you know, 14 hours a day of whatever. So, you know, that's just kind of the lifestyle that I led, and I realized that I kind of . . . I like living like that to a certain extent, but the problem is that because I live like that, I don't know how to like keep myself accountable because I'm so used to having everything else in my life keeping me accountable. Does that make any sense?

Scot: Total sense.

Caleb: Like, you know. So yeah, so I'm kind of in that same boat. If I don't have something telling me what to do or if I don't have an accountability process, then yeah, I'm very much . . . I enjoy being lazy if I can for sure.

Troy: I don't think that's anything really unusual. I think it's just our nature as humans. Like it's what leads to innovation. It's what leads to, you know, technology so much advancement is because we're lazy and we want to make our lives easier.

Scot: That path of least resistance, right?

Troy: It really is. Yeah. It's just how we are, and you're right. It's a struggle, there's no doubt.

Scot: So, Caleb, now you're looking at actually trying to make a change. Like there was a turning point now that's happened. What was that turning point that made you decide, "Maybe I need to start exercising again"?

Caleb: Well, I mean, it's hard to call yourself a strength and conditioning coach and then be neither strong nor conditioned. So, you know, finally at a certain point I was like, you know, like I don't have to do it the way I was doing it, and that was kind of exciting, a little bit like there's an opportunity for change here, there's an opportunity for growth, there's maybe an opportunity to do things differently than I've done them in the past and see if they can get me to where I want to go. And I, you know, at a certain point, I think I went and I played in like a fourfold rugby tournament up in Pocatello or something a couple of . . . like a month ago.

Scot: Oh, ringer. Nice. Yeah.

Caleb: Well, yeah, you can call it a ringer if he's able to like cross the field once without, you know, passing out from asphyxiation. And so, yeah, that was an eye-opening . . . that was an eye-opening moment for sure. I was like, "Man, I am out of shape. This is who I am now?" You know, "I got to get this turned around." So yeah. So I just finally came to that conclusion that look, I know I need certain things in my life in order to make things happen. So I started arranging those things, you know, finding a workout partner, finding a program that I wanted to do, finding a goal, finding a new methodology, you know, whatever, removing certain barriers, adding in certain accountabilities, and really just get myself going.

Scot: Up until this point, rugby, I would imagine, was a lot of the driving kind of, you know, why you were engaging in fitness. What's the driving thing now? Like what is your, why? What's your purpose?

Caleb: There's a few different reasons. The first one being I want to set a good example for my son. I want him to see that, you know, like taking care of your body is a good thing and, you know, being strong isn't a bad thing. And, you know, I've always wanted to be the dad that is capable of still doing things with his kids. So I didn't want to let those days get away from me and that's where they were going. I could feel it in my back there for a little while, you know, you start to feel old.

And so there was that, but then there's also just the . . . I just think human beings were never meant to get old in the way that we get old in today's world, you know. We get old these days because essentially, our bodies get forgotten about and we stop using them and what you don't use, you lose, right? If you don't use it, you lose it. And we don't use our bodies, so we lose them.

And I think, you know, that time that's a fairly recent development in human history and human physiology. It used to be your body broke down from overuse. Eventually, you just used it so much and it just got worn out and it got tired and it just broke down. And that's kind of how I'd rather go. I want to be strong as long as I can. I want to be capable as long as I can. I want to work as long as I can. And I don't want to let anything pass me by. I don't want opportunities to get away from me simply because I didn't keep my body in a position to do anything with them.

Scot: One of the things we talk about on this show is the importance of getting some activity, right. And that does not have to be going into the gym and lifting heavy weights. It could be good getting out and doing a hike. Dr. Madsen likes to quote, who was that? That actor that said, "Get out and sweat a little bit."

Troy: It's the Matthew McConaughey rule. I heard him call . . . I heard, yeah, it's, you know, he's not someone I often quote, but I did read an interview once where he said his goal is every day to do something that makes him sweat. So it's not about getting in the gym. Maybe it's just about working in the yard, you know, maybe you're digging something or, you know, you're climbing or you're running or you're hiking or biking or whatever it is, something that makes you sweat. And so that's his rule and that's kind of his way he stays fit.

Caleb: Yeah, definitely. And that's a great methodology because it really takes the pressure off, right. It's like I don't have to go home and change clothes. I don't have to put on a special set of shoes for this. I don't have to go to a special location. I don't have to drive anywhere necessarily special. You know what, if I just get out and like take my kid to the park and he . . .

Scot: And play Frisbee.

Caleb: Exactly. Just go . . .

Scot: Right, or chase him around.

Caleb: Exactly. Go chase him around in the jungle gym whatever for a hot second, you know. Now you're being a parent and you're being active, you know. It's like it really does take the pressure off.

Scot: Hey, Caleb, I want to . . . Let's break it down for somebody who is struggling. Your story was a story of struggle. It was a story of you are very much engaged in your fitness and activity. And then the reasons went away and you had to kind of reevaluate. And a lot of people, myself included, have probably gone through that and you had to find a new way forward. So if COVID has disrupted somebody's fitness routine, how can they get back into it? Give us some solid steps based on what you know as a trainer and what you've learned through your personal experience.

Caleb: Well, I guess, number one, I'd find a reason. So that's the big thing. What do you want to do? It can be tough too because sometimes people will say, "Well, I don't want to do anything. That's why I'm sitting here."

Scot: I want to Netflix, that's what I want to do.

Caleb: Exactly. So find something, you know, find a reason, find a goal, find a reason to get off of that couch, find a reason to get outside, find a reason to do something. And then once you've found that reason, I think step number two, and this is kind of an all-encompassing term here is schedule. So find that time in your schedule and then write it in there. I actually . . . I'm not one for scheduling. In previous lives of mine, I've never really kept any kind of timeline of my day or anything. It was just kind of, well, when I finished one thing, I'll just get to the next one and, you know, just kind of went with it. But I specifically set aside two hours of my day, every single day for fitness. My time personally is 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. I schedule in time for travel and like that's my time frame, two hours right there. And I know that like when that notification hits, there's no . . . like I'm doing it. That's what's happening here.

Scot: And I should say you do a lot more than what they kind of advise for the average person. You don't have to get in and do two hours.

Caleb: Oh, no. Not at all.

Scot: Thirty minutes of sweating a day has been proven to be enough so.

Caleb: Sure, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. But then I guess along with that scheduling is like that's, you know, keeping that commitment, finding ways to remove those barriers that would keep you from that schedule, finding accountability. So not only taking away things that are going to get you out of the gym, but also adding things that are going to get you into the gym, right. And then number three, don't be afraid to reset the little bit. Reset the foundation, right. You got to be . . . you're on a journey here. You've got to find your new, or maybe you're finding it for the first time, you got to find your level, your ability, your whatever.

For me, man, you know, doing a couple of squats was enough to get me breathing pretty hard when I got back in for the first time, and so I knew I needed that body weight. I knew I wanted to reset that foundation and get myself back into it. Again, in a kind of no pressure situation, right, once you start stacking plates on bars and doing all kinds of stuff, now you're competing with your old self and you're ticked off because well, you know, I used to be able to do this and now I can't do. It's like, well, that's just . . . so don't even do it. Right. That's my thing. I just put it down, put the weights down, let me just move my body again, let me just find a way to move.

And so that's what I would say is focus or find the goal, find the reason, and then up that level of focus so you can keep that commitment to that reason and then find the best way to get to that reason, right. For me, it was going back to body weight, right? For some people it may be a national park's pass, right? Somewhere they can hike with somebody else. It may be, you know, a membership at a climbing gym, you know. Whatever it is, find your reset button, get back to what you want to do.

Troy: And Caleb, I think what you said about just being realistic about where you are, I think that's huge, you know, because I think sometimes we do feel like we've got to go out, okay, I've got to start exercising. It's got to be this heroic effort. You go to the gym that first day and you just do tons of whatever, and you come home and you're just dead the next day. And it's just like in my mind, you know, I just always feel like make it realistic, make it sustainable, keep it consistent. And yeah, in doing that, just say this is where I am right now and this is what I'm going to do, and I'm going to be consistent with it and then reevaluate in a month.

Caleb: Yeah. I love that. I love that. Keeping it consistent is also . . . that's so big. One day I kind of had this revelation. It was after like a good workout and I had been very fickle. It had been like a week in the gym, and we got to the gym, two weeks back, you know, half a week off, you know, I had no routine, I had no plan. And then I had a particularly good workout one day, and I finished that workout and I was like, "Man, imagine if I did this every day for one year. I feel good right now. What if I did this 300 times and check back in a year? What would that . . . That would be incredible." And so that is a huge piece of that puzzle is like you with your running, right Troy, like having that consistency and that kind of stick-to-itiveness, right? Like some days it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. But imagine what happens when you fight off enough of those days and you string together enough days that all of a sudden now we start to see some real fun.

Scot: Yeah. You know, I probably wasted your time, Troy, because finding motivation or getting back into routine is not a problem you have. I don't know how you do it, but Troy has run now for how many days straight without missing a day?

Troy: Well, Scot, I looked back and I tried to figure when I started running every day, and it was about five and a half years ago. So I figure it was about a week ago, maybe a week and a half ago, I hit my 2000th day in a row. So I was proud of that, I was proud to get to that point. But it's funny though. We talk about this, and this is something I have absolutely struggled with. I mean it's, you know, through COVID, through a lot of other things that have happened, I have continually had to kind of reset that motivation and refine that motivation.

So I think that's a process where, you know, maybe there are people listening who are saying, "Well, yeah, when COVID hit, I didn't completely drop my routine. But at the same time, it just doesn't mean what it used to mean to me, or I'm not putting the effort into it that I was before." And I think I've gone through that process where there have been many times in the last six months I've asked myself, "Why do I do this?" Like all the races were canceled, so there was that extrinsic motivation. You know, my wife and I were running races, running marathons and traveling, and, you know, making trips out of it. All of it was canceled. I had qualified for the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon was first rescheduled for September and then canceled. It was made a virtual marathon, where we just went out and run a marathon and say, "Well, that's the Boston Marathon." So it's like this big thing you work for is gone. So it's been a challenge for me too.

So I think a lot of it is this process you've talked through as well, Caleb, of finding what do I just get out of this? What is the intrinsic value in this activity for me that I do every day and is it worth it? And, you know, the conclusion I came to is, yeah, it is worth it. I enjoy this. It means a lot to me. This is worth doing. And I even, you know, I even tried to say I'm going to up my game a bit. I tried to up my mileage. I've upped my mileage in the last three or four months to get more miles in just to try and find that more and, you know, obviously stick with it, but even try and build on that a bit.

Caleb: Yeah. That's incredible.

Troy: Yeah. But it's a challenge though. I think no matter where you are in this process, I think you always face those times where you question why you're doing it and you just have to just reset and continually go through that and find why exactly you're doing it.

Caleb: Yeah. Totally agree, totally. And I think that's the thing for people is they think that, you know, they look at somebody like you, Troy, and if sometimes, I mean, I wouldn't even look at somebody like you and be like, man, you got it all figured out, you know, your life, you got like the social media life, right? Like everything hunky-dory, there's a smiling family, couple of kids, it's beautiful, you know. But like that's the thing is everyone's fighting their own battle here, and there's always going to be reasons not to do something, right, like running or just physical fitness in general, right. It's like why is this even a conversation? We know it's good. Everyone knows it's good for you. Why are we even talking about this? We shouldn't have a problem with this, but we do, right, because there's always reasons. There's always a reason to not do something.

And so it's important to focus on those things, those reasons why you should and why I want to and why can't I? Right. Like it's such a huge thing finding that positivity and focusing on that and allowing that to be the driving force behind your motivation rather than it being, well, I don't want to get fat, so I should run, you know, or like, I don't, you know, finding those negative aspects of motivation are just as bad as having no motivation at all. So we want to find ways to get yourself there and be kind to yourself in the process, right.

People are always like, well, there's always tomorrow. I can get my health in line tomorrow. It's like, well, but then if you start . . . but if you started today, then tomorrow would be day one and not day zero, you know? And then that would make day 365 come a lot sooner. And so if you just keep putting things off, it'll never happen, but you know, the journey of 1,000 miles takes a single step, right? So that's, I think, a huge piece of that puzzle is finding the reason to make today the day. That's a huge . . . and once you figured out, "Hey, today's the day," and then that makes every day, every day, man, now you're making some serious strides and now you can start to see some changes.

Troy: Yeah. And I think too, I think a big thing, and sometimes we've talked about on here is congratulating yourself for what you've done. Like sometimes you think, "Oh, I've got to do more and more and more." But that's been part of this process for me too, is just saying, "Hey, I'm really happy with where I am." Like I got my . . . I went to my doctor back in August. I got my cholesterol checked, and it wasn't really time to get it checked again. And he's like, "Oh, we'll do some blood work because I couldn't get my lipid panel." He goes, "Okay, we'll do it." And I was so excited to see my numbers because I have struggled with that, and so just seeing my HDL is high, my LDL is low, stuff like that it's just like . . . I think it's good to have that just to say, "Hey, this is worth it," you know. Pat yourself on the back a little bit, recognize what you're doing, and then keep building on it.

Scot: Couple of the takeaways that I got that I really enjoyed here, try to find the positive reason. Don't just look while I'm doing this because I don't want to get fat. I think I look at it that way. So I'm going to start looking for positive reasons. But I'm going to really also look for just that intrinsic thing. What is it intrinsically beyond the health and fitness is it that I get out of these things? And I'm kind of excited about trying something new with COVID. So I got some kettlebells and in a future episode . . . have you done kettlebells before, Caleb?

Caleb: Oh, yeah.

Scot: Okay. I need . . .

Troy: I haven't. So this is going to be good for me. I've never done kettlebells.

Scot: Yeah. I've done a little research into kettlebells, I'm intrigued by them, but I need some professional advice. So on a future episode, will you talk me through how to get started with kettlebells so I don't do something stupid?

Caleb: Yeah, let's do it.

Scot: Troy, is there any takeaways you'd like to hit up?

Troy: My takeaway from this is, Scot, it's a song, and Caleb kind of mentioned this and it's a song I often think about. It is on my run playlist that I listened to Baz Luhrmann, "Everybody's free to wear sunscreen."

Scot: Oh, that's a great song. Love it. Yeah.

Troy: Great song. It was for the class of '99. That's the year I graduated from college, so it's on my playlist. But one thing he says in there I often remember is the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself. And Caleb, there's something you said there too. It's not about competing with others. It's about just saying, "Hey, where am I today?" You know, it's a long race, so let's just try and, you know, move forward. Let's try and build on where I am today and not look at what others are doing, and, you know, not try and beat someone else out. So that kind of stuck with me what you mentioned there, Caleb.

Caleb: Yeah. Hey, I'm glad to have inspired you back to the '90s, that's great.

Troy: Absolutely. Anything to quote songs from the '90s.

Scot: Caleb, thank you so much for taking time to share your story, and thank you for caring about men's health.

Caleb: Yeah. Thanks for having me, I really appreciate it.

Scot: All right. Time for Odds and Ends on "Who Cares About Men's Health?" And Troy, do you have your party hat and party horn ready?

Troy: I am so excited for this moment. I have missed producer Mitch so deeply, and we get to hear from him now. I'm so excited.

Scot: We're on Skype with producer Mitch, and we have him on the show because we want to say congratulations for being one year smoke free. Now we're going to see if that gets a clap out of Troy. It definitely gets claps.

Troy: Oh, absolutely. Congratulations, Mitch, for one year. That's awesome.

Scot: That is amazing. One year smoke free. So for real, you've gone a year without smoking a cigarette. You didn't even have a moment where you had one in a moment of weakness.

Mitch: No. No cigarette, no JUULpod. No, no nothing.

Scot: All right. I mean, be honest after the earthquake you must have.

Mitch: Oh no. No, no, no. I just grumpily drank coffee and looked at all the other people smoking.

Troy: Come on, Mitch. You after COVID you must have.

Scot: Yeah. After COVID you must have.

Troy: Come on, after the wildfires, you must have.

Scot: And after the wind storms.

Troy: After the wind storm, you must have.

Scot: Hundred-year-old trees here in Salt Lake City, you must have had a cigarette.

Mitch: I didn't. Nope, not a single one.

Scot: That's amazing.

Troy: Talk about a year to quit smoking. I mean, you really made it tough, man. You really set yourself up, but you did it all through the joys of 2020. You've made it.

Scot: Do you feel better after a year of not smoking, physically better?

Mitch: I do. I do. I sleep better. But I guess the more part of it is that like craving still happens. I mean, I still . . . if someone were to offer me, it would still be a challenge. But at the same time, I don't have a shortness of breath, you know. When I do choose to go running these days, I can. I can go out and I can run and I'm not heaving and feeling like I'm going to die, you know. I don't have these random chest pains that I'm terrified or a heart . . . or like a cancer or a heart attack or something like that. That fear is gone and just having that little anxiety not there, that's what it really is. That's really the change so.

Scot: It's interesting though, you said you still have the cravings. I wonder, have you talked to others who say that goes away at some point, or do they say that's always there? I'm not sure. I don't know.

Mitch: So to answer that, like, I don't know. It seems like every person I've met who's smoked for a long time, they all say that they still to this day, it doesn't matter how long they've quit, they've had those cravings. So I don't know. Maybe they'll go away, maybe they won't, but at the same time I at least know that it will feel . . . that I appreciate not having the anxiety. I appreciate not being nervous every day that I'm going to just suddenly die of a heart attack or find cancer the next day. And I think it's that relief that keeps me from dipping back into it so.

Troy: Congratulations, Mitch, just incredible that you've done this. It's great to hear your voice too. We haven't had a chance to talk to in a couple of weeks, but so glad you've been successful and happy one year anniversary on quitting smoking.

Scot: Congratulations. Thank you for sharing your story. And like we say to all our guests, thanks for caring about men's health.

Mitch: No, thank you.

Scot: Time for just going to leave this here. That's where we might have something to do with health that's on our mind, or it might just be something completely random. Just going to leave this here. Troy, have you ever gotten toothpaste in your eye before?

Troy: I kind of have. Like, I have an electric toothbrush, and when I first started using it, sometimes I forgot to like completely turn it off when I pulled it out of my mouth and I'd have to say I do remember getting some toothpaste in my eye, but I'm guessing there's more to this than just a little bit of toothpaste.

Scot: No. I got toothpaste in my eye. So you got kind of diluted toothpaste. You got the toothpaste after it'd been in your mouth for a while. I don't know what happened, but I put toothpaste on my electric toothbrush, I turn it on, and then I had this tremendous stinging in my left eye. And it's got to . . . it had to be, it had to be toothpaste, you know. I went and rinsed my eye out. Was that the right thing to do?

Troy: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Rinse your eye out.

Scot: That's okay?

Troy: Yeah, just run it under cold, yeah, just kind of lukewarm water, and yeah. That's the best thing. Anytime you get anything in your eye, if you can just tolerate, just tilting your head to the side, let that water run in there and wash it out.

Scot: Oh, should I have gone to the ER?

Troy: Yes, please. I wish you had come in during my night shift. It would have just given me so much joy to see you there because you had toothpaste in your eye. Well, Scot, I'm just going to leave this here. You know, I have to give a shout out to my crew for my virtual Boston Marathon. I know I've talked about this before, but they canceled the Boston Marathon. They did this thing where they said, basically go out, run a marathon, and then we will count it as your Boston Marathon. This was the 124th Boston Marathon. They've never missed a year so . . .

Scot: That would have been your first Boston Marathon.

Troy: Yeah. It would have been my first. Yeah. So basically, what I did . . . So Laura, my wife, she drove me up to the top of the Mirror Lake Highway, 10,777 feet at the Bald Mountain trailhead, and that's where I ran my virtual marathon. I ran down the Mirror Lake highway. Charlotte, my dog, she ran with me the first half, and then Laura and Sally and Itty Bit, Itty Bit is our other dog. We have those three that were in the car the second half, and she was there obviously the first half as well leapfrogging me, giving me water, encouraging me. She even had a trophy for me at the end for the COVID Marathon. Did you see it?

Scot: I saw that trophy, yeah, I did.

Troy: First place.

Scot: Was that a surprise? Did you not expect the trophy?

Troy: I didn't expect it, but my favorite part of the trophy was she had it engraved so it said first place COVID Marathon, but she didn't have my name engraved on it because as I thought about it afterward, there must have been a chance that maybe someone else could have gotten first place in the COVID Marathon. I do remember passing someone at one point on the road, so maybe they were in this as well, but I beat them. I got first place. So anyway, it was, you know, it was kind of a bummer with Boston getting canceled, made it a fun experience so.

Scot: Well, congratulations. So now it's done, like if they run the Boston Marathon next year, your qualification, even because of COVID is no longer valid?

Troy: It's kind of weird. You can use your qualifying time for this year and resubmit it for next year, but it's really a bummer like if your qualifying time maybe didn't beat the time by a lot, by more than maybe a minute or two, it's possible that you would not qualify for the 125th Boston Marathon. So you just have to resubmit it with everyone else submitting stuff so.

Scot: You're going to do that.

Troy: Oh, yeah, yeah. I'll submit it, but it's funny. Normally, that would be happening right now where you submit your time and you see if he got in, but they're delaying it because you know, because of COVID. They don't even want to start to make plans for next year, which would typically be mid-April. So we'll see what happens. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't run it. I don't know. We'll see.

Scot: All right. Time to say the things that you say at the end of podcasts. I'm going to start that over. All right. Time to say the things that people say at the end of podcasts, because these people, Troy and I, are at the end of our podcast. So thank you very much for listening. Subscribe, whatever podcatcher you like would be great and if it has the ability to rate and review, that'd be much appreciated as well because it does help other people that would enjoy this find it.

Troy: You know, you can reach out to us. Reach out to us. You can find us on Facebook, . Our website is . You can email us, we'd love to hear from you, hello@thescoperadio.com. We even have our call-in number. Scot, can you give them the number?

Scot: 601-55SCOPE. Go ahead and write that down, Troy, and write that down, everybody else. 601-55SCOPE. If you have any questions, comments, you just leave your message right there. Is that it? Did we cover everything, Troy?

Troy: I think that covers it. And if you call that number, you can hear Mitch's very encouraging voice to encourage you to leave a message for us. So call in, let us know what's on your mind. Let us know what you'd like to hear us talk about. And thanks for listening and thanks for caring about men's health.