Greg Nance ran across America, from New York to Washington State, in 84 days. For Greg, this cross country run wasn't just about checking the experience off his bucket list. Greg was running to raise funds for his youth mental health organization, Run Far Foundation.
In July of 2022, Greg Nance returned from an adventure of a lifetime. He ran across America, from New York to Washington State, in 84 days. For Greg, this cross country run wasn't just about checking the experience off his bucket list. Greg was running to raise funds for his youth mental health organization, Run Far Foundation.
Connect with Greg:
Resources:
Episode sponsor:
Greg Nance:
I'm proud of the progress I've made to be able to make healthier choices and try to lift myself and lift others up while doing it. Running is freedom. Running is empowerment. Running is a vehicle to be the best version of me. I love trying to share that message far and wide because every one of us is capable of more than we realize. Every one of us has a better, stronger version that we can work toward.
Shelby Stanger:
Greg Nance is one of those people whose wild idea has led to another and another and another. Greg studied in the UK. He's lived and worked in China and founded several nonprofits and businesses. He's someone who prioritizes mental health and going after wild ideas, and he's more than 10 years sober. On top of that, Greg is an incredibly accomplished long distance runner. In fact, he just got back from running across the entire United States. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production. In July of 2022, Greg returned from an adventure of a lifetime. He ran from New York to Washington State in 84 days.
During that time, he took zero days off and averaged 39 miles a day. That's the equivalent of 120 marathons in less than three months. For Greg, this cross country run wasn't just about checking the experience off his bucket list. Greg was running to raise funds for his youth mental health organization, Run Far Foundation.
Greg Nance, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Greg Nance:
Thank you, Shelby.
Shelby Stanger:
You're welcome. Your wild idea was to run 3,156 miles from Queens, New York to the shore of Washington State. Tell us about exactly what it took to do this.
Greg Nance:
I've long had a dream to run from the Atlantic to the Pacific and really it takes, number one, I think starting with a vision and then putting together the very best team you can to make it happen. I'm really fortunate. I had the vision and then built out a great team step by step by step. Almost six million steps later, we went from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Shelby Stanger:
But one day did you just wake up and you're like, 'Hey, I'm going to go run 3,156 miles for mental health."
Greg Nance:
Yeah. Why running and why run across the country? I think back to the 16-year-old version of me, very carefree kind of teenager in an idyllic community, Bainbridge Island off the coast of Seattle, and went through some tough stuff. I lost my grandpa Charlie. I think back to the pain I felt and the despair I felt, the loneliness I felt, and in the wake of that made some unhealthy choices around alcohol and painkillers. I took a lot of wrong turns in those first years with drinking and drugging. Eventually I started taking some of the right turns, and only after getting clean and sober and then working through that for a number of years did I realize that underneath all that were mental health challenges.
The Run Across America I think in so many ways was to reconnect with that 16-year-old version of me and do something that I know that 16-year-old version of me would be super stoked on, would be proud about, and would just be like, "Wow! I grew up to be a cool adult, that really was pushing it and living the best version of me". A lot of this is dedicated to that 16-year-old version of Greg, and I'm proud of the progress I've made to be able to make healthier choices and try to lift myself and lift others up while doing it.
Shelby Stanger:
I appreciate you sharing your honesty and candidness about why you decided to do this. Addiction and mental health issues run really deep in my family. Running's really interesting. I've interviewed a lot of endurance athletes who have addiction and they've traded addiction for running. Is there a correlation for you? Did you always run when you were a kid? Did you run cross country in high school?
Greg Nance:
Yeah, I played just about every sport growing up, football, basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer. I wasn't very good at any of them, but I was usually one of the quick kids on the team and I just loved getting out there moving. When I was a senior in high school, I first went out for the cross-country team and the track team. Wasn't that great, but I just really enjoyed it. It was so just joyful to be moving, to be training, to be competing. Just loved it. For me, running is freedom.
In time, it became freedom from addiction as well. It was a release and an outlet that I didn't need to be drinking malt liquor or vodka to be feeling really good. Lacing my running shoes became a little bit of that ritual and a far healthier one than drinking or drugging.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you get into running long distances?
Greg Nance:
I went to school in Chicago for college, and I thought that I had a real shot to be a great college runner, but I was still really struggling with drinking at the time. It got to a place where it was absolutely getting in the way of training. I wasn't sleeping enough or properly hydrating and fueling. I became a very unreliable teammate, missing practices and just not really being committed. The coach, who is a very compassionate good guy, also needs a team that's reliable he can count on, and I was no longer in a position to be a contributor there. He tells me to basically get lost in spring of 2008.
I knew I had screwed up and I was totally bummed out. I started doing these jogs along Chicago's lakefront, Lake Michigan there. It is such a beautiful place, and it was an opportunity to get my stride again. I would initially run just two or three miles and then add a fourth or a fifth. And before long I was running all the way Downtown Chicago and then back to the south side 15, 18, 21 miles. The farther I went, actually the better I felt.
Shelby Stanger:
In 2009, Greg decided to sign up for the Chicago Marathon. He loved it and running marathons became his new hobby. After graduating from college, Greg went to business school in the UK. While he was there, he heard about a 50K ultra marathon on the southern coast of England. The race was brutal. It was raining, the wind was super strong, and Greg was freezing. When he got to the finish line though, he was surprised to learn that he placed 10th overall. Placing in the race was a big success and it got him thinking about what else he could accomplish if he stopped drinking. Just curious, when did you decide to get sober?
Greg Nance:
I decided over a hundred times, Shelby, and I tried a bunch of times, but it wasn't as simple as just making the resolution and doing it. A lot of times I'd wake up on a Saturday morning and think never again. I can never drink because I'm hurting my friends, my family. I'm not treating people with respect that they deserve, or I wake up and it's like, "What did I do?" Or I have some potentially broken bone from something I don't even remember. I can never drink again. And yet eight or 10 or 12 hours later that Saturday night, I'm drinking again and waking up the next morning with a similar thought.
Tried literally over a hundred times. It was only in December 2011, I've run that first ultra I tell you. And then in the backdrop as all that's happening, my own personal life is really falling apart. Actually I was a business school student in the UK and I have my dream opportunity in front of me. I'm a business school student at my dream school, Cambridge University. I have a full scholarship from the Gates Foundation, and I am blowing my stipend not on textbooks and tuition like I'm supposed to, but instead on pubs and drugs. That means that I literally am summoned to the provost's office and get chewed out.
He calls me a disgrace. And if he could, he would expel and deport me. It's like, whoa, look, I'm not used to hearing that from some authority figure. My life is completely unmanageable. I've got to turn the corner here. Maybe that was the hundred first time that I had tried to finally get my act together. With this ultra there in England and with a couple of the volunteer projects I was cranking on, I was able to channel some of that nervous energy and feelings of anxiousness into running, and I haven't looked back.
Shelby Stanger:
You got sober after that moment?
Greg Nance:
I did. Yep, I did.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow. Congratulations.
Greg Nance:
Thank you.
Shelby Stanger:
That's amazing.
Greg Nance:
It's like a dream. I would not be living the life I am today without those moments, including some tough ones to get me there.
Shelby Stanger:
Greg, I want to go back to 2022 when you decided to Run Across America. What was the day you decided, okay, I'm going to go do this?
Greg Nance:
At that finish line...
Shelby Stanger:
2011 at the ultra race in the UK.
Greg Nance:
Precisely. I'm in England. I'm a 23-year-old. And in that moment, I just felt so much just happiness and bliss that, wow, I went and made this big thing happen and I want to make a lot of big things happen. That was the moment of I want to run across the country. The decision was made. I'm going to do this and I can only do it if I'm sober.
Shelby Stanger:
Around that same time, Greg was presented with an opportunity to move to China to work on a platform that would help students all around the world gain access to educational programs. The project was a great success, but Greg's work was extremely stressful. He was responsible for a team of employees and thousands of customers. Despite the grind though, he stayed sober and he got even more disciplined with running. In the back of his mind, Greg knew he would Run Across America. After seven years in China, Greg was ready to come back home and pursue his dream. When we come back, Greg talks about planning and funding his run.
Plus, he tells us some great stories from his time on the road. In the summer of 2022, Greg Nance completed his Run Across America from New York to Washington State. During that time, Greg crossed 14 states running over 3,000 miles and nearly six million steps. Running this distance was a personal mission for Greg, but it was also part of a bigger movement. Greg was raising money and support for youth mental health. The entire endeavor took a massive amount of preparation. From meeting locals to arranging accommodations and taking care of his own health, Greg knew he couldn't complete the journey alone.
The logistics of running 3,156 miles are no joke. You're no stranger to startups. You've obviously built a couple of companies. How did you plan this trip?
Greg Nance:
The first thing is I didn't do it alone. My mantra is best team wins. I got really, really lucky because in 2020, I had the chance to connect with a fellow named Reid Block. Reid is a former long distance cyclist and now human performance entrepreneur. He's an elite operator who really knows how to get stuff done. I have some strengths, but no one would accuse me of being a great operator. Being able to partner with Reid, he was able to really break this down into a series of complex project management deals and we're able to figure out what are the core needs, what kind of support are we actually going to need day to day to day.
And then go recruit these folks, including Dr. Yoshi, a chiropractor, physio nutritionist, who's my body man, my body mechanic. And then Elise Telford, who's a really awesome operator herself, a great marketer and very, very handy driving my F-150 as well. Put together this team and then everything's possible with a great team. I could just feel immediately like we're going to make this happen. It's going to be really hard. We're going to make it happen.
Shelby Stanger:
Well, it's really funny that you said that because it seems like a lot of adventurers, they're not all the best operators, but they're really good instigators. A lot of the people that I've interviewed who pursue wild ideas, including myself, I'm not the best at managing. Nobody would hire me to be their operations manager. But how did you fund this?
Greg Nance:
A good chunk of it was out of pocket. See, I spent about $55,000 just paying salaries to make it happen. But the other side of this, this was actually a fundraiser for Run Far Foundation and our youth mental health mission. My expenses, my team expenses were out of pocket, though I had about 730 donors all told for our youth mental health mission. A lot of these were five and $10 donations from someone we met at a Starbucks in the foothills of Pennsylvania. And then a number of these folks are my second grade or fifth grade teacher chipping in 20 bucks.
Shelby Stanger:
You ran for 84 days, the equivalent of 120 marathons.
Greg Nance:
Yup.
Shelby Stanger:
How long does it take you to run a mile? What do you do per mile? What's your pace for 40 miles a day?
Greg Nance:
Slow is the short answer. If I was really cooking, I'd be doing nine minute miles. More often though, especially when I was hobbling around, it'd be like 12, 13, 1330s. I think I put down maybe a couple seven minute miles just when I was feeling really good or if there's a little bit of a downhill. But key was slow and steady. Keep showing up slow and steady.
Shelby Stanger:
Do you walk any of it?
Greg Nance:
A little bit, yes. One of the big challenges I haven't touched on is you got to eat a lot to fuel this. I needed to put down about 6,000 plus calories a day just to maintain, let alone to put enough down the hatch to keep some muscle mass here. After putting down a big lunch, 2,500, 3,000 calories, it's hard to be running with any steam. I would walk it out for the next 20, 30 minutes, get the legs back under me after that nap and after that feast, and then start trotting again. A little bit of walk-run, but to put down 39 miles, jogging it, you'll get there faster, you'll get there sooner.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you not get injured?
Greg Nance:
I was injured. I'd say 82 of those days I would say I was legit injured. It starts really small. I was in pretty good shape going into this. But from day three, it's a comedy of errors, man. It's like then it's my Achilles, then it's my ankle, then it's my calf, and then it's charley horsing my hamstring. The biggest issues were left ankle tendonitis and then really just hip flexors that didn't want to cooperate, lower back spasms. In this Ohio cornfield, I'm on the ground crying, waiting for Dr. Yosh to come up to try to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Day nine I took a nasty, nasty spill. My foot caught a sidewalk in Pittsburgh and I faced plant landing, impinging my shoulder.
It was a lot of pain. And that became the quest within the quest for me. I was craving painkillers and I was like, look, I can't relapse. I'm trying to do this to uplift people. As this journey of self-discovery and me overcoming some of my previous challenges, I can't fall back in the mud on this one.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you deal with your own psychology during those times?
Greg Nance:
Every morning I was in bed feeling depressed and wondering, what in the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this? Dr. Yoshi and Elise were just so good at hacking my brain. For instance, hey, here's a cup of coffee on the desk at the little motel. You got to get out of bed to come get the coffee. Something as simple as that. They were so good at those little itty bitty things. They would drive a hundred miles out of their way because they knew that Greg could really use a burrito today. Let's get him a burrito for lunch, surprise him with this. We'll be back in two hours with your lunch. I'd be just despondent.
And then, hey, here's a burrito. I'm like a little kid. I'm a fourth grader, man. It's like give me some candy and some food and I'm pretty stoked again. Every night I'd take Epsom salt baths and I would jot a little post on my Instagram and sharing that. I mean, it was a powerful way to, number one, reflect on what a cool opportunity this is. Number two, the number of friends that would then message me, call me and wanted just check in on me. It was really, really sweet. It was a reminder that I do feel alone quite a bit out here and it is really, really hard, but there are a lot of people rooting for me.
And that's just really sweet, man. It's the kind of thing where even when you feel like you're carrying a million pounds on your back, it's a lot lighter when you realize, hey, there are literally hundreds of people that are in my corner, would do anything they can to help me get a little further West.
Shelby Stanger:
Running more than 3,000 miles takes an immense toll on the body and mind. There were many moments when Greg felt like he was at the end of his rope and couldn't go much further. Then something weird and wonderful would happen and he'd double over laughing or get inspired to keep pushing through to the finish line. Are there any funny moments that you recall?
Greg Nance:
Oh man, every day. Maybe my favorite single moment was I had to get lots of tape, this KT tape on my legs to try to keep me together. I don't have the hairiest legs. But if you have hair at all, it's very painful removing this tape. We realized, look, we just got to shave your leg, dude, to make this possible. I've said, "Hey, I can shave my own leg. I don't want you to have to do that." "No, no. I insist, Greg. I need to do this." He is shaving my leg. And as he is shaving my leg, there is just a gust of wind that appears out of nowhere and all of this hair ends up in poor Dr. Yoshi's mouth as he's shaving my leg. He is trying to spit this out.
It's just this like, oh man, I should have just done this at the hotel last night instead. You're now spitting this out. And as that's happening, a fellow on horseback, riding a horse name Blue... We're in the middle of nowhere. There's a guy on a horse just appears and there's Dr. Yosh trying to get hair out of his mouth as Blue and his writer roll up and is like, "What are you doing on the corner of my ranch basically?" And it's like, well, we're doing this run and Dr. Yosh is now trying to get hair out of his mouth.
Shelby Stanger:
Isn't the United States just so weird and wild? You saw it from a totally different perspective. Any hard days or extremely memorable days?
Greg Nance:
I'll fast forward to day 53. I'm now in Eastern Montana. The preceding weeks have been really, really difficult from a physical and mental standpoint, emotional, spiritual. Just on every level, I am a broken man trying to just keep withering West here. I'm crossing into Cheyenne Land, this beautiful rolling hill reservation in Eastern Montana. I meet this jovial looking elder named Cedric Fighting Bear. It is the single most life-affirming moment of the entire run for me, because as I dig into Cedric Fighting Bear's story, I have never met anyone in my life that has more reasons to be angry or resentful about how their life is gone.
Cedric's one of nine kids. He's lost every sibling to accidents, to tragedy, to disease, to overdose, to addiction. He was orphaned at age nine. He goes and lives with a drunk uncle who beats him every single day. Runs away from home. This guy has every reason to be down on life. And yet Cedric Fighting Bear is one of the most hopeful, optimistic, resilient people I've ever met. His mission in life as now an elder on the Cheyenne Lands is to be there for Cheyenne youth because there is an epidemic of mental illness and there is an addiction epidemic and a suicide epidemic that goes with it.
Cedric Fighting Bear uses various tribal stories, mythology and lore as a way to show people, look, we've been through really tough stuff as a people since time immemorial. And every single time we've come out better and stronger because of it. We need to remember that right now. To close it off, Cedric wishes me, Dr. Yosh and Elise safe passage. He presents a little cedar shingle, braided sweetgrass, and then a hawk's feather, all of which are symbols for safe passage. While saying this kind of prayer, he reminds us that in Cheyenne mythology, runners always held a special place because they were the messengers between the seven tribes.
He put his hand on my shoulder. "It's up to you, Greg runs far, to go continue West to the Pacific because you have a message." It's just like, wow. It's exactly what I needed as we're about to go climb the Rockies and we have another thousand plus miles to go. I feel so broken in so many ways, and yet I can't let my buddy Cedric Fighting Bear down. I got to make it to the Pacific. We do have this message that matters. Let's do it.
Shelby Stanger:
Throughout Greg's run, so many different people inspired him to keep going. But nothing could prepare him for the final show of support on July 18th, 2022. As Greg was headed toward the finish line in Ocean Shores, Washington, he was met by an entire community who wanted to cheer him on during that final mile. What was it like when you reached that 3,156th mile in Washington State on the coast?
Greg Nance:
It was overwhelming, man. I was feeling the totality of this life-affirming, life-changing experience. I'm running shoulder to shoulder with a good buddy, Andrew. We're jogging it in, and all of a sudden I notice there's people out. They're filling both sides of the street. They're clapping. Pretty soon it turns into this little small town parade of hundreds and hundreds of well wishers fire trucks and police cars with their lights flashing. It's overwhelming.
It's something out of a storybook, having hundreds and hundreds of people literally escorting me down to the ocean. I've run a lot of miles in my life. That 3,156th I think will always be my favorite. It was just so sweet and special to be able to share that with all these wonderful folks.
Shelby Stanger:
That sounds pretty incredible. I know finish lines can be hard for a lot of people. How did you deal with the end of this journey?
Greg Nance:
Yes. Let me contrast this. Finishing Run Across America, I have been so lucky that I haven't had the classic depressive crash afterwards. I have been just super uplifted by my little hometown. We had a homecoming party. I get to hang out with my nieces. Life is so good. I'm so lucky that my employer welcomed me back with open arms. I feel very fulfilled, and I'm running each day, but usually one or two or three miles. I'll contrast some of the bliss I'm experiencing now three years ago finishing the World Marathon Challenge, where I ran seven marathons, seven days, seven continents. At that finish line in Miami, the seventh marathon, I was showered with champagne by my running sponsor.
They didn't know that I'm a recovering alcoholic because I'd been too embarrassed and ashamed to be open and honest with them. They showered me with champagne and then sent me back to my five star hotel in Miami Beach they were putting me up in. And that night I almost relapsed for the first time in several years. That finish line was the epiphany for this start line. That was my mission moment where I realized, man, I am still actively wrestling with these demons. Until I've actually done the work around my own mental health, I am always going to be wrestling with this with a hand tied behind my back, where friends shower me with champagne to celebrate this big thing I've done almost trip me up.
Part of that's because I haven't been open and honest because I've felt too embarrassed to be so. That was my epiphany, like I've got to turn the page, live more openly, honestly, authentically. It set the stage for this finish line where I have other wild ideas. I want to keep working as a runner on my craft, and I want to approach this with an open mind and open heart so that as I'm going through tough stuff, I can get the support I need. As I reach these finish lines, I've got the right people, the right support and encouragement around to keep at it.
Shelby Stanger:
When Greg originally came up with an idea to Run Across America, it wasn't attached to a social cause or fundraiser. After several years of using running as a tool to preserve his own mental health and sobriety, Greg decided to start Run Far Foundation. The nonprofit supports youth mental health with grants for volunteer projects. Run Far Foundation also helps organize after school running clubs across the country. They provide jerseys, shorts, and notebooks for the kids to document their goals and their progress.
Greg hopes these efforts will help young people in their own struggles with mental health. I mentioned earlier that I know a lot of endurance athletes who've dealt with addiction and maybe even some of them use running as sort of a replacement. Why you think that is?
Greg Nance:
I think one element on the calling side is a number of us have felt pretty broken and a number of us, myself included, have felt almost like a disconnection from that higher self. Endurance sports, by its very nature, calls us to work toward a better version of us. It calls us to find inspiration beyond ourselves because a lot of this stuff feels absolutely impossible when you get started. I couldn't run a mile when I got going, and yet now I can go run 50.
That would be absolutely impossible on day one. We find inspiration. We find connection and community with others on the quest to be a better version of ourselves. I think there is some dopamine, there is some serotonin, there is some oxytocin and other brain waves behind all this. But ultimately, I think we want to rise up and honor our potential and endurance sports is one vehicle to do so.
Shelby Stanger:
Greg Nance, thank you so much for coming on Wild Ideas Worth Living. Your ambition, your confidence, and your courage are making a big impact. Congrats on your fundraising successes for youth mental health and, of course, on running across the entire United States. If you want to learn more about Greg Nance and his cross-country journey, you can follow him at Greg Runs Far on Instagram. To donate, volunteer, or learn more about Run Far Foundation, you can go to runfarfoundation.com. They're also on Instagram @RunFarFoundation. Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network.
It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger. Written and edited by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we appreciate when you follow this show, rate it, and review it wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.