071: Six Hours on Everest with Francis Lackner - a podcast by Will Hicks

Francis Lackner and Sue Harvey-Brown join us in this episode.

You may have seen Francis on a Tough Mudder course in his jolly red suit carrying his running partner, Santa Claus. Santa has "run" 39 Tough Mudder events. Francis plans to cross the 100 event mark himself in 2018.

In June of 2017, Francis lost his mom to cancer. A few months later Francis was running Toughest Mudder Chicago. His mom was supposed to there with him. On his second lap, the emotions became too much and he felt ready to quit. Instead of quitting, Francis and Ryan Cray decided to spend some extra time at the top of Everest 2.0, just helping people over the obstacle. The penalty for failing the obstacle was an additional 3/4 mile run. That extra time turned into an hour, and then into two hours, and then into four hours. Francis and Ryan left Everest to finish their second lap after 5 and a half hours on top of Everest.

After Toughest Mudder ended at 8:30 Francis spent the morning honoring his mother. He passed out red plastic roses to TMHQ staff, volunteer, and runners. The roses represented "One more day above the roses" the title of a song that became important to Ryan and his mother as she battled with cancer. Ryan tells the story of the roses and everything that happened that weekend.

Sue Harvey-Brown is the liaison between Merrell and Tough Mudder. When Merrell is working on a new initiative with Tough Mudder, odds are Sue is not far from the work being done.

Merrell and World's Toughest Podcast are partnering to bring you the Merrell Mudder Moment. This is a moment that happened to you or someone you know on a Tough Mudder course. Maybe the moment happened off the course and Tough Mudder was how you conquered it, or found peace with it. Or maybe Tough Mudder was how you honored someone like Francis and his mother.

We're going to highlight a new Merrell Mudder Moment every other month in 2018. Honorees will receive a pair of Merrell trail running shoes like the All Out Crush 2.0 and the opportunity to share their story on World's Toughest Podcast.

To submit your Merrell Mudder Moment, email Worldstoughestpodcast@gmail.com with Merrell Mudder Moment or MMM in the subject line. In the body of the email tell your story. What happened? How did you deal with it? How were you changed? Winners will be selected by World's Toughest Podcast and Merrell. Good luck!

0:00 Intro

2:27 Tough Mudder News

15:52 iTunes Reviews

20:54 Merrell Mudder Moments with Sue Harvey-Brown

28:28 One More Day Above The Roses with Francis Lackner

1:12:56 Outro and Wrap-up

 

World's Toughest Podcast is excited to partner with Merrell again to give away a pair of shoes every month to listeners of the show. To win a pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex 2 or Merrell All Out Crush 2 trail running shoes, text the word TOUGH to the number 228-28 or email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with MERRELL in the subject line and your 1)Name, 2)Email Address and 3)Cell Phone in the body of the email. Either option will subscribe you to the World's Toughest Newsletter and qualify you to win.

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