The Extra Mile - The Official Charity Miles Podcast

Sue and Gretja Otten are a mother and daughter team who are thru hiking the Appalachian Trail to raise money for Parkinson's research in honor of their husband/father, Ron.

I met up with them on October 2nd while they were in Pennsylvania, nearly halfway done with the trail.

I apologize that it took me a while to release this. (I'm not an audio-engineer and had to figure some stuff out to get the sound right.) So, at the time I'm releasing this (November 3), they're already through Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Over the last 104 days, they've completed 1,329.7 miles, which leaves only 864.6 miles to go to their finish line on Springer Mountain in Georgia!

Gretja and Sue share what life is like on the trail, lessons learned and most importantly, WHY they're doing this.

Personally, I can't imagine what it must be like to take on such an incredible adventure with either of my parents.

But one day, I hope I have the opportunity to do something like this with my son, Max.

Huge thanks to Gretja and Sue for taking on such an incredible endeavor, inspiring all of us, and for supporting the Michael J. Fox Foundation-- a cause that many of our members know is very close to my heart.

Please check out Gretja and Sue on YouTube here:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCociBTjQ2TshurgcGxCJmGA

If you'd like to donate to their Team Fox Fundraiser, please click here: https://fundraise.michaeljfox.org/endurancegeneral/ATforPD

#EveryMileMatters

Robin McGeough is a professional licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor, the Director of Chemical Dependence Services at Aurora Charter Oak Hospital, and a recovering addict himself.

Robin is also the founder of Run4Recovery, an endurance and community event designed to provide vital support to those recovering from alcohol and drug addictions in the San Gabriel Valley.

Robin founded Run4Recovery after a friend presented a challenge: if he could run 20 miles a day for 10 days, they would donate $1,000 to a charity of his choice.

Robin met the goal and raised $3,500 that year.

Since then, over the last 15 years, Run4Recovery has raised more than $310,000 for the Puente House Foundation scholarship fund.

While the event originated as a running feat, the team transitioned to riding ElliptiGO elliptical bikes to prevent joint and muscle injury.

Robin has personaly run and ridden thousands of miles to draw attention to the cause. This year, starting on September 26, Robin ran 502 miles on an EliptiGO over 5 days.

For more information on Run4Recovery, visit www.run4recovery.com.

In 2014, Andrea was in the prime of her life.

She was 33, married and planning to start a family. She had a rewarding career. And she was having fun participating in triathlons and other endurance events, including a marathon and Half Ironman.

Then she was diagnosed with ALS and soon walking with a cane.

Only 20% of people with ALS live more than five years past their diagnosis.

Yet, 8 years after her diagnosis, Andrea is not just living. She just completed 50 marathons, in all 50 states!

Andrea knows she's one of the lucky ones.

"Fortunately," she says, "I am able to eat... and breathe... and speak."

This may be the most heart-stopping thing anyone has ever said to me in an interview. (Or otherwise.)

I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to not take eating, breathing and speaking for granted.

I also cannot imagine the kind of courage, imagination and resilience it would take to be diagnosed with ALS-- and then set out to conquer fifty marathons.

In this interview you'll hear Andrea's story in her own voice. But it's not just her voice-- it's the voice of the ALS community.

Please click here now to learn more about Andrea and support her Foundation which is raising money to fund research towards a cure or effective treatment for ALS.

Thank you to Andrea for having the courage to live and write such an incredible story-- and thank you for sharing it with all of us.

Katerina Biloruska is the Chairwoman of the Parimatch Foundation, the corporate foundation of Parimatch, an international sportsbetting company with deep roots-- and over 1,000 employees-- in Ukraine.

In normal times, the Parimatch Foundation focuses on children's sports and education initiatives.

But these are not normal times.

As of the date of this release, we are over a month into Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A few weeks ago, I sent an email to our community with some resources for how our community could step up to support people of Ukraine.

I received a reply from one of Katerina's colleagues to let me know how the Parimatch Foundation (and the company) have shifted their efforts to support the humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

I asked if they'd be willing to share more on our podcast, and I'm grateful that Katerina took the time to share her perspective for what's happening on the ground, and how we can help.

If you'd like to learn more about Parimatch's work in Ukraine, please click here.

Ryan Kaplan is the Director for the Jewish Community Center of Krakow's Ride for the Living, an annual cycling event from the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau to JCC Krakow, giving participants the opportunity to immerse themselves in Krakow's Jewish past, present, and future.

As many of you know, we've been working hard to evolve Charity Miles so that we can be more accessible to all the great charities that want to join us. We're happy to say that we're now more able to do so, and JCC Krakow is one of the newest members of the Charity Miles community.

In ordinary times, JCC Krakow provides social, educational and community-oriented services to the Jewish community of Krakow, offers programming open to the entire Krakow community to foster Polish-Jewish relations, and acts as a visitor center for the hundreds of thousands of tourists, many of them Jewish, who pass through Krakow.

But these are not ordinary times.

As of the date of this podcast, we are over a month into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has sent over 2 million Ukranian refugees to Poland.

The Polish people are rising to the occasion, doing everything they can to support the refugees.

JCC Krakow is stepping up as well.

Since the war began, they have served many thousands of Ukranians, an average of over 300 each day.

They are housing and feeding over 200 Ukrainians, Jews and non-Jews, in hotel rooms and apartments in Krakow.

They have outfitted and opened a mother and child safe space with a local partner that provides day care for 25 young children, and Polish and English classes, psychological counseling, and job training for their mothers in a warm, cozy environment.

And much more.

I'm grateful that Ryan was able to take the time to share his perspective from the ground with us.

If you'd like to support or learn more about the work that JCC Krakow is doing for Ukranian refugees, please click here.

James and Krista White, father and daughter, are the co-authors of Anti-Racist Leadership, a book about how and why corporate leaders at all levels can create anti-racist systems, structure and, ultimately, culture in their companies.

James comes to this as the former Chairman and CEO of Jamba Juice, and a board member for several companies, including The Honest Company.

Krista is a writer and entrepreneur focused on diversity and inclusion. She is currently building an app to address the sex-ed gap for the Queer community.

This is a book for the moment. This is something I know everyone in our community cares about-- especially our employee empowerment partners.

Huge thanks to James and Krista for writing this book and for sharing so much with us.

If you'd like to contact them, here are the relevant handles...

Culture Design Labs.

James White, LinkedIn.

Krista White, LinkedIn.

Krista White, Twitter.

#EveryMileMatters!

Jon Montoya isn't just walking around the world with Charity Miles...

He's walking to all seven wonders of the world.

1. Chichén Itzá El Castillo, in Mexico

2. Machu Pichu, in Peru

3. Christ the Redeemer, in Brazil

4. The Colosseum, in Rome

5. Petra, in Jordan

6. The Taj Mahal, in India

7. The Great Wall of China

It's a 25,000 mile journey that he estimates will take him seven years to complete.

He started last July and has already completed 2,500 miles. So, he still has a long way to go.

But he as already come very far, and learned quite a bit.

Jon is walking in support of (RED) and to champion the World Health Organizations ambitious and inspiring 2030 Global AIDS Strategy - to eliminate AIDS by 2030.

This may be my favorite interview yet - Jon is just incredible.

Huge thanks to Jon for sharing so much with us and inviting us to be a part of his journey.

>> Here's a link to Jon's YouTube.

>> Here's a link to Jon's Instagram.

>> Here's Jon's email if you'd like to drop him a note: [email protected].

#EveryMileMatters

Dave Richman is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, athlete, and philanthropist.

As an author, Dave has written a few books.

His first, "Winning In the Middle of the Pack" he shares insights learned on his own transformation journey. Once a couch-potato (and smoker), David has since completed over 50 triathlons, including 15 Ironman-distance triathlons, and more than 50 ultra-marathons.

In his most recent book, "Cycle of Lives", Dave shares the stories of fifteen people who each have their own cancer journey. Dave then symbolically connected these stories by riding his bike 5,000 miles, zig-zagging across the U.S. to each of people.

There's a lot in this podcast-- so much that I'll probably have to listen to it several times.

Huge thanks to Dave for taking the time to share so much with us.

#EveryMileMatters!

Grayson Murphy is the 2019 World Mountain Running Champion, 6th place finisher in the Olympic Trials for the Steeplechase, and a 5X collegiate All American.

She's also an environmentalist, mental health advocate and entrepreneur who makes journals for training and life.

I met Grayson two years ago at a running trade show and she gave me one of her journals, which I used last year.

So, I was very happy to be reconnected to Grayson by our partners at Nuun.

I know that most of you don't need an introduction to Nuun. They make electrolyte solutions without sugar. I've used Nuun in my training for years, and am still using them now as I train for the NYC Marathon.

I also know that many of the people in our community love Nuun as well-- because I see so many of you posting about it on our social media channels.

So huge thanks to Nuun for sponsoring us, and for reconnecting me with Grayson!

#EveryMileMatters!

Erin Azar is a Tik Tok star with nearly 700,000 followers!

But she is perhaps an unlikely social media celebrity. She's not a fast runner. She doesn't have perfect abs, a spotless kitchen or that one secret trick to whatever.

She's a mom of 3 from rural Pennsylvania who started running a couple of years ago, after the birth of her third child.

Just a mile a day she thought, as she started documenting her journey on YouTube and then Tik Tok.

At the time, she was just looking for a community of others like her to share the journey with.

But something about her posts struck a chord, and her videos "blew up" (as the kids say) to millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers.

Erin is a breath of fresh air, exactly what the running community-- and social media needs these days.

Special thanks to my friend Kim at AfterShokz for introducing me to Erin. Kim and her sister, Christy are running the NYC Marathon for Team Fox. When they told this to Erin, Erin wanted to join to because her father has Parkinson's.

In just the last 2 weeks, Erin has already raised over $40,000 for Team Fox. And she's not slowing down!

Huge thanks to Erin for supporting Team Fox, and for taking the time to share her story and insights with us.

#EveryMileMatters!