From 354 Pounds to Chasing 100 Miles

Dan LaMorte1:37

Yeah. Yeah. Everything I do, I go all in on whether that's eating or not eating, you're running, not running, I go to the max on everything. And that was I definitely got pretty fat. But yeah, I like I had followed you because like I've been doing standup for 12 years now. So a good chunk of my life I'm 31 years old and uh

I just at a certain point I started to get more enamored with runners and athletes than I did comics cuz I was in it for so long and it was the path I was going down into ultra running and I'm as big of a fan as running and athletics and ultra running as anyone. So it was just natural and there was something, you know, you were from the Northeast. I I am also from the Northeast. So I there's a certain mentality of people who grow up in the cold who are kind of crazy but in a good way.

You know, I was like, "All right, I sense that in Ken." You know, I I have this weird gut feeling when I'm like there are people that I think I would be friends with and they would not in the terms of like financially or career-wise get something out of them, but like human wise, like I can maybe learn from this person or be pushed by them and and I'm very attracted to that in people.

Dan LaMorte3:49

Yeah. I almost like when people show that side of themselves to me though because then I know like nothing against them but I know it's not someone who's going to work into my life because we're just not the same because if people who live schedules where there is a high level of output on staying active, staying healthy, going towards goals, you don't have the time. My phone's on do not disturb 24/7 outside of phone calls. Anyone can reach me on a phone call, text, there's a good chance it's not getting answered.

And I think some people dislike me for that a lot. And that's fine though. You have to be like, you have to set those boundaries in life eventually, which I didn't for years. I was just like, I'm going to do everything. I'm going to accept every show. I'm going to do every gig. And that's how you, you know, you're on the road for seven years getting up to 355 lbs cuz there's nothing to eat but Taco Bell in Peoria, Illinois.

Dan LaMorte5:35

Grew up in New Jersey, born in Brooklyn. Uh like most Jersey families, they start in Brooklyn, go to Jersey. I mean, moving on up.

Yeah. My whole town in New Jersey, I don't think there's a single person not from Brooklyn or Staten Island of sorts.

Dan LaMorte5:49

Manalapan in New Jersey. So, the Jersey Shore. Oh, yeah. Central Jersey.

Dan LaMorte5:53

Yeah, it's pretty nice. I uh It has two parts of the town. There's Englishtown and then there's Manalapan. One side's like the less We were from Englishtown and then eventually made it to Manalapan.

But I love it, man. Like when I'm like people have this idea of New Jersey in their head. You go to my hometown, more farms than you could imagine. I'm 30 minutes from like really solid trails in every direction. It's so much more rural than people realize.

Dan LaMorte6:39

I know. Yes. And uh the situation actually for a very long period of time lived in my hometown and stuff and like we he would go to the same gym that I would go to and he'd have like his own private corner and he'd just be in the corner working out and I've like I've met Vinnie from the he he does stand up as well. He's the only one that I've actually spent time with but I'm like yeah this isn't Jersey. Like you don't remind me of home.

No. Exactly. But uh I I have I'm very fond of of being from there and it was perfect relation to Manhattan. I was about an hour from the city so I was able to kind of always be a comic without having to live in New York. I did at points but I was able to have that accessibility to it.

Dan LaMorte7:20

Yeah, baseball. I didn't I didn't necessarily excel at any sports. I was a very overweight kid my whole life. But my father my mom would let me quit things.

Yeah. And my dad was very against it. And then it came down to where like baseball was the only sport left. And he was like, "You can't quit this. You do need something." And he just forced me to keep doing it. And eventually I got good enough at it to go play in college. But it was very much not a fun childhood of baseball. My dad was the coach, forced me to get better. Did not play me. Everyone goes, "Oh, your dad was the coach." I hated that.

They would always play their sons. Like I have memories of going to tournaments where I was the only kid on the team who did not play cuz my dad told me I wasn't good enough. So it's like the exact opposite. You know

Dan LaMorte8:09

Yes and no. It's weird. Like he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. It makes no I often tell him he's the only person I've ever met who is just happy 24/7. And it's like how did you walk through life unscathed?

Dan LaMorte8:20

I don't understand. I'm so jealous of people like this guy. The hardest worker. I mean he's up every single day 2 in the morning. He's owned a deli his whole life. Now he has a different business, but still gets up 2 in the morning, gets into Manhattan by 4 in the morning.

Dan LaMorte8:35

Yeah. And just hustled his whole life. And it it was a really good role model for me. And I'm very appreciative that he never let me quit baseball cuz it was good to have something that I was okay at but not good at.

Dan LaMorte8:49

And then had someone go, "No, no, you need to work to get good at this." Cuz

See, sometimes you don't know that's possible until you're forced to do it. And then high school comes along and things start to shift which like in hindsight I had no idea how important that like junior and senior year of high school were to like my story cuz I was like I was overweight. I was very heavy and but I was getting good at pitching and the coaches were coming up to me and they're like listen you're good enough to play in college but you're fat. Like this was a different I I'm 31.

I graduated high school in 2013. You could still find scouting reports written about me online from college coaches where it says I have a thick frame that needs to fill out. Like I was getting called fat in every which angle. And I became friends with my high school volleyball coach. I didn't play volleyball. He was a weirdo. No one liked this teacher. We had just built the new weight room. And I this guy would work out every morning in the weight room. So I became buddies with him.

And I was like, "Will you let me come to the weight room before school starts so I could just work out? I need to lose weight to try to get a scholarship." And he was like, "Yeah, absolutely." and he starts letting me into the weight room every day before high school at 5:00 in the morning. So, I'm up at 4:00, I'm at high school at 5:00, I'm working out for 2 hours, then start in school, lose the weight, get a scholarship. And that's kind of what I trace back to being the first time what I call it as flipping the switch.

That's always been my mentality. And that was the first time like the switch was kind of flipped in a positive direction.

Dan LaMorte11:00

Yeah, I would say that it that has always been something that I've traced it back to is that obsessive pattern. Like when I do decide like this is what I'm going to do, there is nothing else that's going to like it's going to happen. And that's been definitely what I've always equated that to the asberers and that side of me. I've I've had the same I've been lucky enough to I I do good with routine. I've had the same therapist since I want to say I was 14 years old.

So like 17 years now. And uh she's really helped me kind of look at that and instead of looking at the obsessive side as like maybe problematic, she helps me like how could we reshape this to be a really positive thing. Look at all the things you've gotten into. Cuz it's helped with baseball. Well, it's helped with comedy more than anything. Uh, but then it's also been my, you know, one of my biggest negatives where I go all in on bad things as well. It's almost like

The dopamine once it's hit, it doesn't care that it's good or bad. I just want to keep getting it. You know,

Dan LaMorte13:04

I went to this little school called uh Felician University. Okay. So, literally f you. It's like

Dan LaMorte13:12

Last chance you, man. Like you uh I was I had like I want to say seven scholarship offers coming out of high school. Uh I never threw that hard, but I was a really good competitor. I knew that I could beat the batter between the brain. Like I was really big on the mental side of it and tripping them out, like getting in their heads and stuff. Uh and that was like a that became like this really important component for me. But then the coaches start to come along cuz success is coming and uh then I get arrested for selling weed in high school.

It was my like most things go my it was my first four-way for how do you say it? Like my first

Dan LaMorte13:50

Yeah. 4a into it and first day I get arrested.

Dan LaMorte13:56

Yeah. Literally we buy like it's me and two other kids. We buy the drugs we are then going to sell that night and then I get pulled over leaving the house that we buy them from and I get arrested.

Dan LaMorte14:09

They had to have been cuz it was so quickly, you know.

Dan LaMorte14:14

No, nothing. It was like probably wasn't even an ounce of weed looking back on it, you know, but this was different times. So they gave a distribution then. Yes. Uh but luckily one of the kids I got arrested with his dad was a cop, so it all kind of

Disappeared. But nonetheless, the coaches found out because you had to put on your like scholarship. Have you been arrested?

Yeah. Uh, and then this one school I knew the coach and he couldn't have cared less. You know, we had kids who did far worse on our team that were removed from other universities and given a chance here. So, it was kind of cool cuz it was this little division 2 baseball team, but like in the preseason, we do all our preseason games against division one teams and we'd kick the [ __ ] out of them cuz we were good. We were like

Dan LaMorte14:55

Uh, East Rutherford, New Jersey, like 10 minutes from Giant Stadium. It's in Fairleigh. Dickinson, which is another college,

Had this campus. They said, "This campus is too old. We need a new campus." They leave and open their new campus. And then Felician goes, "Well, we'll start a college in this old campus." So, we were in a college's campus that they thought was too old in the 80s, you know.

Dan LaMorte15:17

So, you know, it doesn't take long to tell the whole story. Opening day comes, I have a very good preseason. Uh, I become the number one bullpen pitcher. So, as a freshman, I'm going to be the first guy out of the bullpen. And I'll never forget, we had a junior on the team, Gerard D Flippo. He transferred in from a division one school. And because he didn't have friends that were juniors, he hung out with all the freshman. And we were out at Applebees the week before the season started.

And he said, "The first one out of the pen," meaning the bullpen, is always the first one under the knife. And then a week later, opening day, our starter gets rocked. We're down in South Carolina. I come in out of the bullpen. second of four innings of work, I throw a change up in the dirt and my elbow explodes in a way that I've never had an injury before. I've broken bones running since. I've never had anything like this where like you just hear the ligament pop out loud and I called the catch route who was my roommate and I was like, "My elbow just broke.

It's done." He was like, "What do you mean?" I was like, "It ripped in half, but I don't want to come out. I want to stay in." So, uh, we had this powder at the time that was caffeine cut with ibuprofen. So they loaded me up on that and I stayed in for like two more innings and then my arm was just like literally dangling and it was swollen out to the side.

Dan LaMorte16:30

I tore my eral collateral whatever the UCL is Tommy John surgery was 100% clean off the bone. I think it was within a week the Yankees doctor Dr. Ahmad was doing full elbow reconstructive surgery which it's I think a 90% success rate and I was the 10% that had a really bad surgery. Never picked up a baseball again. ever. I haven't thrown off a mountain since that day.

Dan LaMorte16:52

That was it.

Dan LaMorte16:59

Yes. And you know why? Sorry. It was all because of one kid on the team. There was a senior on the team named Casey. And you know, there was a lot of hazing that would go on. Uh and as a freshman, you had to stand on the field for the infield outfield as the warm-up. And I was catching, you know, just for the coach. and he knew I wasn't looking and he fired a line drive at me just to mess with me and the ball hit me square in the elbow.

So like I I took a line drive off the elbow by this kid before the game. So I think I came in to pitch with my elbow already swollen and then just I mean pitching is such an unnatural motion and I started throwing a lot harder in college. Like I had a huge spike of velocity from high school to college and I just don't think my arm was able to handle it.

Dan LaMorte17:45

It was. I really thought I was going to come back from it. Uh I had dropped out of the four-year school and I went to a community college cuz in New Jersey we had this school that at that point had the number one junior college baseball team in the country, Mercer County Community College. And I liked the coach. He wanted me so I was like, I'll just go there.

And then it became pretty apparent that it wasn't good. And I had already started standup at that time because I weirdly had this wherewithal after the injury happened that I was like if I don't transfer this energy into something, life's going to be really dark. It's already going to be dark. I fully was aware that depression was coming, but I knew if I didn't at least add another factor into my life that it was going to be a really bad few years. So, I started doing standup while I still had the cast on my arm.

I had like the big robotic Tommy John cast. My dad drove me to an open mic in Kennallorth, New Jersey. I had written a bunch of

Dan LaMorte18:46

I loved it. I was obsessed with comedy my whole life. I used to steal my dad. My dad listened to Howard Stern a lot. So, anytime I was in the car with him, there would be Artie Lange, Jackie the Jokeman. So, I knew like that stuff. Norm Macdonald. Uh, and then he would have comedy CDs and I would steal them. There was one particular Good Day to Cross the River by this comic named Greg Giraldo. Passed away many years ago and that CD changed my life.

I mean, here was this guy who was a Harvard educated lawyer who decided to become a standup and was doing it in a leather jacket and tattoos and doing this socopolitical material that was genius. And these dumb audience members had no idea how smart this guy even was. And it just seemed so cool to me. Like before big games, all my friends would be listening to rap music and stuff. I was listening to Richard Prior and Carlin. I would listen to standup while I warmed up to play baseball.

So, it just seemed like a natural progression. And I didn't fit in at I didn't have any friends as a kid, being a fat kid and stuff. So, just being the class clown was all I knew. It was the only way I could get any reaction from my peers cuz I didn't I was always described as like the old soul. I always got along with the parents better. I didn't understand kids. Uh, so being like the class clown was the one way I felt like any connection to those around me, which you learn in hindsight, those aren't real friends.

They're just laughing at you for being goofy. Yeah.

But I think I just had that built in uh that desire to want to do standup. Yeah.

So when the injury happened, I mean, when you're a college athlete, you're doing sometimes two, three workouts a day. I knew I needed something that that's that kind and upset. Uh standup in New York City when you're like trying to make it in the early years is like being a college athlete. It's a grind that is unlike anything.

Dan LaMorte20:59

When they called the the chess program, the a woman used to do a talk show about chess. It It's just that prank phone calls and they I mean they were the legends. They got in a prank phone call during the OJ chase. I mean, how crazy. It was a different time.

Dan LaMorte21:17

Yeah. Like those were the videos my dad would show me when I was a kid. He'd be like, "You don't understand. They pranked OJ while it was and then he would pull it up and show it to me." Like that was always there was no filter of like what is appropriate and not appropriate for a kid, which is probably you could argue as bad as a parent,

But that definitely made the sense of humor develop.

Dan LaMorte22:12

It's impressive. I mean, he has stories himself where he talks about being at a diner with Hedberg and Daldo, who are both guys that died from heroin,

And like they were trying to get Hedberg clean, and Hedberg just looked at them and was like, I'm going to die from this. Let me die. But it's crazy. I remember even Arty talking about that dinner and being like, I can't believe that I am the one of those guys that's alive now.

Dan LaMorte22:37

But he's uh I actually saw a picture of him this week for the first time in ages. It was David Tel's birthday a few days ago and Dave went out to dinner and posted a picture and Arty went out to dinner with him and like that's the first time I've seen a picture of Art in years cuz he's not doing standup anymore or anything.

Dan LaMorte22:52

Nothing. So, it was cool to see him and he looks like good. He looks like he looks healthy, you know, his nose is back to normal and stuff. So, that's pretty cool to see. But, Arty was a huge inspiration to me as a kid.

That's what I was going to ask.

Dan LaMorte23:02

Mitch Hedberg was the biggest one just because it was like these silly oneliners and like a very weird energy up there. Uh Giraldo, then you had guys like Norm Macdonald who were very weird. I always liked the weird stuff. Uh John Melany. Yeah, I like those guys. But I was always more intrigued by the class that came before me. Y

Cuz the weird thing is like when I started standup, I was 19 and I got lucky. Like I I I had success pretty quickly. I like I became the fastest to ever get past at the comedy seller. So before I could legally drink, I'm a regular at the seller, which ended up not being great for me at that time. But I started to then all of these people that I was going to look up to became my co-workers. So then I never got into this phase of like admiring the people that I was like I don't know if I'm a fan of any standup right now.

David tells the one guy I would pay money to sit down and watch. And Patton Oswalt, I think Patton is severely underrated.

Dan LaMorte24:10

I wasn't good enough cuz like the comedy seller I still when I perform there often will have that feeling where I'm like [ __ ] I have to go up at the cell cuz like everyone there is the best comic in the world. Like no one is bad at the comedy seller. Everyone is going up there and is killing for 15 minutes. So if you don't want to follow someone who's destroying the room, it's really hard. And when you're 20 and you've been doing standup for 2 years, you know, a year and a half, yeah, you might be able to get some laughs and you might be good, but you're not a 20 year vet.

You know, there's just skills you pick up through the years that you don't even know our skills, cadences, crowd control, just you need to have hell thrown at you to even understand how to deal with hell. And when you're a young comic, you don't know hell.

Yeah. Like you don't know what bombing at like a cancer benefit in a synagogue is, but then you eventually have that and you bomb for 400 people at a cancer benefit in a synagogue and someone says, "Man, I bet you wish you had cancer tonight." And like you go through [ __ ] like that and then you that's how you become a better comic. But at 19 and 20, I didn't know how to do that. So after like it's this weird thing where social media at that point wasn't as prominent as it is even now.

Yeah. So, you could still get stuff without having like a huge following. So, I get into this and then immediately kind of puts a target on my back where no one knows who I am. And now I'm at this club. So, the older guys are like, "Who the hell is this guy?" And I just choked. I don't think I was good enough at the time. And after about 2 or 3 years, uh, the booker named Estie, she's still the booker now, this old Israeli woman, badass, scary,

Uh, she just stops using me. like out of nowhere. I go from being the youngest guy who ever got passed at the seller. Now I'm not there at all and I don't work there for I want to say almost three or four years and that ends up triggering the weight loss because

Dan LaMorte26:13

No, I was probably 190. So not bad. I got into good shape.

Dan LaMorte26:19

Not fat. No. No. I had gotten

Dan LaMorte26:22

Yes.

Dan LaMorte26:23

I had gotten into the best shape I'd ever been in up until that point.

Dan LaMorte26:32

Yeah. Well, because working out really became such a big thing to me and baseball was starting to not seem I don't often tell this part of my story, but uh around the freshman year of college while I'm having a successful preseason, I'm also simultaneously meeting with recruiters from the Army and the Marines because I was going to drop out of college and be I was a I got this in my head in high school that I wanted to be a Marine. I loved it. Or an Army Ranger.

I don't know why.

I love your obsession. your obsession with [ __ ] I had Marine banners, marine books. I read the book One Bullet Away. I'd watch Jar. I mean, everything you could do. I would run on a treadmill in high school to Marine Cadence like that. They would yell at boot camp. And I even told my parents like I was meeting with the recruiters behind their back and I said, "Listen, I'm going to play this one year college ball. I don't like school. I don't want to do this anymore.

I'm going to go into the military." And then I blew out the arm opening day as if life was going to be like, "No, you're not." I remember I wasn't going to I couldn't do push-ups anymore at that point. My elbow was destroyed

And it just changed the whole

So I get hurt opening day. We're down in South Carolina. We come home. Uh I find out right before the next trip that it's fully ripped. I need surgery. So I'm taken off the roster, you know. So my whole team now leaves to make the trip. I'm by myself in the dorm room. And I have this weird dark memory of going to the cafeteria and just getting a big thing of ice cream and coming back to my dorm room and sitting down and eating it. And I trace that back to just being the start of my brain being like it's okay to be fat again.

You lost baseball. And then just go I end up, you know, not just slowly. By the time I'm I start stand up at 19 and by the time I'm 23 years old, I weigh 350 lbs.

Dan LaMorte28:22

Yes. 354 was my heaviest weight.

Dan LaMorte28:46

The walking around. Do you know what as sad as it's the getting out of the car?

Yeah. like getting out I had like a Hyundai Elantra maybe and like getting out of the Hyundai dude was so hard like uh and it was also I took it's so s I took shoelaces out of my boots. I would wear Timberland boots with no shoelaces cuz I didn't want to bend down to tie anything. And the most disgusting thing is the button of the jeans causes such damage to your midsection. Blood scars. I would get like these blisters on my stomach. I mean, it's just it's a life that it you can't bend down and it's just it it's weird.

I can't even put myself into it mentally anymore. Like it it's it's so hard for me. I want to give you like a perfect answer of what it was like, but I'm so far I'm one of these people who the second something is in the rear view window, it has to be in the rearview window. I can't go back and live in it. I don't know why. I mean, it's probably healthy to go back and break [ __ ] down. The second it's over, I need to put it behind me and just, you know, keep that momentum forward.

Dan LaMorte32:38

Yeah. I I think like any big thing in life uh I think there are a few kinds of people. There are people who realize when changes need to happen quickly and they make them. And then there are some people like me who need to be smashed in the face repeatedly by life until you listen to it. And uh

Dan LaMorte33:04

Yeah. Well, I was in a bad car accident. Not like terrible, but I was in I total two cars in the span of 3 months. The first one I had spilled my coffee. I looked down. Car in front of me stopped short. I'm bent over while I hit the car. So, it's not high impact, but the way my head is, I get hit in a weird position with the airbag. So then I have to do cognitive therapy for a few months. I'm starting to feel better and then I have a bad car accident.

I'm driving home late from the comedy cellar. It was a late 2 in the morning on the Garden State Parkway and a car in front of me. Guy was so high and drunk that he parked in the exit lane, turned off the car, fell asleep in the middle of the exit lane. Mind you, the Garden State Parkway is 65 mph speed limit. There's not a lot of lights in this section. So I'm getting off the exit. By the time I see his car parked there in the exit lane, I'm going 60 mile an hour into the back of his car.

And I broke my foot. I remember having to be pulled from the car and like dragged to the side of the road. And uh I got lucky, you know, I had the broken foot, but when they take me to the hospital, that's when they do like a whole body scan and I had some pain in the abdomen, but it wasn't from the accident. That's when I get diagnosed with a fatty liver just cuz I'm very heavy. You know, it happens when you're fat.

Dan LaMorte34:17

And I don't know what it was. It was like those two things and I'm just in a weird place mentally. So, I decide like I'm going to go to Los Anytime I'm in a weird place, I go to LA. I don't know what it is. I like LA. I like just I like having a place to disappear to for a while and stand up is fun out there and you get good work done. So, I went to LA for a week and uh my buddy goes, "Hey, let's go on a hike." I'm fat.

I'm like, "I ain't going on a freaking hike, man." And he goes, "Just come on a hike." So, this is like LA's this is almost a decade ago. So, they have dispensaries, you So, I go to a I I've never been to a dispensary. I go get some weed and I get stoned and I love the hike. He takes me to Runion Canyon. We hike like maybe half of it and I love it. I'm like, "This is amazing."

And uh the I'm staying in LA for I want to say,

Dan LaMorte35:13

And let me tell you, that mentality has not shifted much, unfortunately. And uh but the the apartment that I'm subleting for the few weeks that I'm there, they have a shitty little gym in the garage. So then I just start getting stoned and working out in the gym. And next thing you know, like on the few weeks I'm in LA, I lose like 30, 40, like a crazy amount. Cuz when you're very heavy, you could take off a lot of weight quickly. And I'm walking everywhere cuz I don't have a car out there and no one walks in LA.

So I'm walking to get food. I'm walking to do shows.

Dan LaMorte35:44

I give up gluten. That's cuz uh a doctor told me I may be allergic to gluten at this point. I've still never bought into it fully. I mean, you can I have eczema on my hands. I It flares up every time I eat gluten. I refuse to give it up fully. But those first years, I give it up completely and the weight just between that and the easy walking. And then when I get home from LA, I go buy a fat guy pair of running shoes like these bright orange AS6 that are made for heavier set dudes.

And I just start running, you know, and it it's like the, you know, any story like Goggins or something, you go a half mile and you stop and then the next day you go a mile and it just slowly builds up. And then, uh, I want to say from the initial heaviest weight, like the fatty liver diagnosis to my first ultramarathon, which was like a 40 mile race in Pennsylvania, I want to say it was two years.

Dan LaMorte36:40

My liver was fat. I don't I just

Dan LaMorte36:47

I think it could like if you live your life long with it, it could become like I don't know maybe cerosis or

Dan LaMorte36:56

Yes, you could if you like stop it right then. I think as I was young too like I feel like a lot of people online they'll see my weight loss story and they'll go, "Oh, he reversed the fatty liver disease. He took off the weight. he became a runner, like I could do it too. And I'm like, yeah, anyone could do this. But the one caveat is like I was in my young 20s. I was a college athlete five, six years before that. So like I had some reservoirs to tap into.

Dan LaMorte37:19

And I think like when I think of stories like Goggins, you know, and he's like everyone could do it. It's like Yeah, but you were also a Navy Seal. It's like let's also

Dan LaMorte37:29

Absolutely. But it's like let's there is also that we need to everything that gets us to where we are. We can't really like shed like we have to admit that like yeah I was able to do this probably because I come from a college athletics background.

Dan LaMorte38:34

Yeah. I'm trying to get it down to like But here's the that's why like I downplay a lot of what I've done because it's every day and life has never stopped beating me down. And I've had a lot of fuckups along the way of this weight loss journey, man. Like

Less than a year ago, I was back up to 230 lbs almost. Like I was getting pretty chubby again and I'm 180. So I I lose 180 lbs and then I still end up last year having to go through another 50 lb weight loss because I let [ __ ] slide again. I mean that's the interesting thing is like there's the big before and after picture but then there's the reality of it that it never is going to like these are choices you have to make every every single day.

And like there have been times where I have been like I corrected my behavior. I got it right like right. I I

Was always struggled with drinking from a young age. uh probably got sober for the first time when I could legally drink at 21

And then obviously fall off

Uh uh 26 27 I get actually sober, go to AA and I stay sober for 3 years up until through my wedding. I get married. I don't drink at my wedding and then uh September of 2024 I'm doing my second attempt at an 100 mile race. I've done a lot of ultras but never in a 100. The first 100 I got rabbed though. The race ran out of water pretty quickly and I wasn't prepared and it went south quick.

Dan LaMorte40:00

Dude, it was so bad.

Was organizing these races day. They didn't know it was going to be hotter than they expected and they let the lead pack all dump the water on them. So, by the time the midpack got there, we were having to refill our handheld bottles with the ice from the cooler that they were keeping the bacon in. So, it had like flies and [ __ ] And like it was bad. Like they the race screwed up. But I also should have been more prepared. Like it's these things where like

There's a lot of stories. You could go on YouTube and you could see a video that has a million views where someone's like, "I ran 100 miles with no training. Here's what happened." I'm the story of the guy who has done these things with training and it's gone wrong every single time. Like so like the second time comes around. I'm 30 miles into this race in Pennsylvania called the Pine Creek Ultra and my chest starts hurting bad.

Dan LaMorte40:52

Yeah. Because we were bodies at the time. I trained. This was the race that I objectively had put in the most work for.

And it starts to become pretty clear 30 miles in, I'm like, "This is weird. Like my chest is hurting bad."

Dan LaMorte41:56

So at it just seems like trouble breathing at first you know where you're like for the pace that I was going because I was just trying to finish the 100. I wasn't trying to break any records. So, it didn't make sense. I was low zone 2 the entire time.

Dan LaMorte42:24

Cuz you know with the amount of effort you're putting in, there's no way that this should be the return." And the unfortunate thing about it, right, is there's this group from California that's been making a documentary about my weight loss and running from the first Ultra. So, they've been following me for years. They come all the way out for the first ultra, end up in the hospital. They now make a second trip. They're like, "We're going to try to get it this time."

And my family, we hire, we like have a little camper, right, just for this weekend. And I pull my family into the camper and I say, "This isn't good. Like, something's up, but I want to keep going." My mom's a nurse, so she starts to get a little nervous cuz my dad had just had a device implanted. So, uh, whether it's a pacemaker or one of those, he just had a heart issue. So, there's an thought it might run in the family, but I didn't think that cuz it was just chest pain.

And then mile 40 comes and it's like jaw pain now.

Dan LaMorte43:19

So, that's when I'm like, okay, my jaw hurts, my chest hurts. I'm saying it feels like there's a heavy weight in the middle of my chest, like the elephant on your chest. Yep.

I'm sweating more than I should be. Uh, but I don't want to give I I end up dropping at 60 mi. So, I run from mile 30 to 60 with these pains and it gets to the point where I sit down in the camper and I'm laying back and it's just so much pressure and my chest just felt so full. I didn't know what it was. I couldn't grab my breath. So, they take me right to the ER and it's honestly all still kind of a blur.

So, b no family's allowed at that point because it's like the nighttime visiting hour. So, I'm alone in the room. Everything seems okay. And then uh next thing you know the nurse comes in and she's like we're going to go get your family. I think they should be up here with you. We found some things in the scans. I was like what? And uh so I had something called a spontaneous pneumomediastinum which is when your chest fills with air and the cavity around the heart just air leaks in there for some reason

Dan LaMorte44:18

From the uh No, that's the we don't know where it came from. So it could be from the lungs, right? It's there. When the air leaks to the left, it causes the pneumothorax which is deadly. [ __ ] lung. Mine went to the right, so it caused all of this stuff in the chest. Uh they still don't know why. There's only some suspicions as to what could have caused it, but once that they tell me this and then for some reason they then put an oxygen mask on my face, which in my head I'm like, "Wait, they're saying that I'm filled with air?

They're now jamming more air into me. They're saying and I don't know what happened, but like everything everything went white. I broke out into a sweat that I can't even describe to. My heart rate went beneath 20. It went to like 16. Like really crazy low. All the nurses come in, they call like the [ __ ] codes or whatever.

They come rushing in. I'm just going white. Like my clavicles, dude. Literally pools of sweat. Like, you know, like what they say like a heart attack sweat. I just have these pools underneath here. And my mom, who's a nurse and is like a very stoic woman, like the last image that I see is her in the corner crying, like begging me like, "Come back." And I don't know, they didn't have to paddle me or nothing. I just it slowly reversed itself. They put me in an ambulance, sent me to a trauma center, and I was in an ICU for 4 days, and then I was released.

Dan LaMorte45:39

No treatments.

Dan LaMorte45:41

They said the only reason they ended up keeping me in the ICU that long was cuz I ended up getting Rhabdo a second time.

Dan LaMorte45:47

Well, it's when like your muscles break down through your urine or whatever, like from all the running.

Dan LaMorte45:53

Yeah. I don't know. I don't. It's in one ear, out the other, dude. I can't I can't internalize all this [ __ ] because then I'd never run again.

Dan LaMorte47:42

Well, I like it. I like the getting beaten down. I I think that's what life is about because why who goes through this unscathed? That's [ __ ] Like I don't

I don't care when these things happen to me and not in like a oh I'm just this is supposed to happen to me. I'm the guy this happens to. It's like no no I it's become very clear to me in my life that for one reason or another I learn through hardships. I learn through struggle. I learn through getting kicked in the teeth. And I love it cuz that for me that is how I have to learn. I need something big like that. And also like you said, I love not giving into stuff that people think you should give into like cuz you know I go to the hospital in the first 100 mile attempt.

Dan LaMorte48:25

That was just rhabdo, you know.

Dan LaMorte48:29

Yeah. It's like when the pee is like you know like Coca-Cola pee they call it. And I had also collapsed during there. I passed out. So it was really hot out. I hadn't had water. So I passed out on the trail.

Dan LaMorte48:38

bad. It's And it's People go, "Oh, he must not train hard." It's like, "No, no, no. I live as if I'm a professional athlete." My whole life is dedicated to this in a very crazy way. And it just still goes south sometimes.

Dan LaMorte49:50

Yeah. still make it 60 mile. I mean, you figure I still make it 60 miles. 30 of which I thought I was having a heart attack for. So I was still like I was really bummed out cuz also the documentary people are there. They lost a lot of money. They had to fly back to California. like they didn't and there was sometimes when I listen to I take in anything ultra that I could take in and you listen to some of these guys and they go there's no pain greater than quitting y you know and I've reshaped that in my head where I go there is no motivator greater than quitting like if I didn't quit those races I'm not able to put in the days that I'm putting in now I'm putting in days that I never dreamed I would put in and I'm hurt right now and it's like I'm not even running and I'm putting in days that I that I dreamed

Of Like so it it it's all part of this this overall thing and it's this we have this weird belief in my head for one reason or another that it's going to work out.

Dan LaMorte50:43

And that's what people I think need whether it's stupidity or not. Like I've sacrificed so much for the running goal. Arguably more than I should have as a comedian. But it's because for some reason I am convinced that on the other side of this goal I have set which was years ago I wanted to run in a 100 mile race that on the other side there's going to and maybe there's nothing there but I don't give a I want to get there and like that's why the rhabdo the ICU and then I take off months from that.

I couldn't run for months. I I was going to pulmonologist I had to wear two different heart monitors. I have an enlarged right ventricle. Like I I have athletes heart. I have, you know, I hear the things they say maybe you had blebs on your lungs from smoking weed and they exploded. Then I went to a hippie doctor who said, "Don't you ever listen to that. Cannabis has done no wrong." That's the doctors I like. And then I take off probably three or four months.

Dan LaMorte51:35

This is where comes the es and the flows. I'd been sober for years.

Dan LaMorte51:39

I went through my wedding sober for years. Now I have these heart issues.

I have an international tour coming up. my uh my you know former partner whatever I don't know legally what you call it soon to be ex-wife we were doing this international tour and none of

Dan LaMorte51:56

Yeah. None of the doctors were able to tell me like 100% you're going to be safe on the plane. They were kind of just like go for it but we don't know what's going on with your lungs and chest.

Yeah. And the addict in me, man, the second that plane was in the air, I use that as justification to be like, well, I might die up here. My lungs might explode. Might as well go down with some Jack Daniels. So then on the plane to Europe when I've been sober for years, I start drinking again.

Dan LaMorte52:28

Yeah. Yeah, she was.

Dan LaMorte52:30

She was stoked.

Dan LaMorte52:33

Not really.

A big drinker, but she drinks. She drank and like I think she was excited to have me back on that team,

You know? Like I I definitely cuz I'm not a bad I'm a fun drug. That's the problem. Like I don't make it look bad. That's why I don't do it. It's easy for me. And that trip like it should have been a red flag to me on that trip that I had taken years off and everyone goes, "Man, that first drink back is going to mess you up." Nothing. I was back to having 12 drinks. Like it was nothing. I could go on stage with six whisies in me, have six beers after in the green room.

I like that life. Yeah,

I like the rockar. Unfortunately, I could buy into that so quickly. So then I get I tell her, you know, when I get back from Europe, it doesn't count if it's in Europe.

Dan LaMorte53:14

Of course I drink when I get back from Europe, you know. So then

I'm not running. I start drinking again on this down time. I go up to 220 something pounds again. And then I I go, "Fuck, what am I doing?" Yeah.

So I start training again, you know, and I'm I'm starting to do pretty good.

Dan LaMorte53:30

terrible. It felt like I had the piano on my back again. It felt like those early runs and that's when you're like, man, like

You could make four years of progress and then do four months of reversing the progress and you will feel that almost more than those four years of progress. Yep.

And it starts to become really prominent in my head. And then I I start training really hard and I'm like, I got to reverse this. And I sign up for my favorite race that I do every year called the Hyner View 50K. It's one of the best ultramarathons in the country. It's out in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has something called the triple crown of mountain ultras. Hyner View 50k, World's End 100K, Eastern States 100. They all suck. They're all rugged mountains. You're not getting runnable miles. And I love Hyner.

So I I'm like I'm going to go do Hyner. And

Dan LaMorte54:24

Hyner in a 10 mile segment you'll get more runnable. Hyner has like two really big climbs. the Hyner Mountain and then Son of a [ __ ] which is at the end. Uh but there's some sections you could kind of go fast on. World's End 100K which I'm also doing again this year. That's maybe you'll get 10 miles over the 100k that's runnable. Everything else is like pretty rudy and rocky.

But like the I love that those kind of because it like evens out the playing field. I love being in nature. So, I go do Hyner again and I I thought I trained pretty well all things considering, you know, and I do it and it's the first one back since the heart thing. And I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] I I I survived. It was hotter than I expected." So, I didn't get to push as hard as I want. So, the next week I go right back out to training because I'm like, "You know what?

I'm back." And I go back to the trails and I had just run a 50k, but I'm like, "Let me throw down hard today. I'm feeling good." So I'm running like you know hard for me is like on technical trails a 73 8 minute pace which on technical trails is moving pretty fast.

Dan LaMorte55:21

So I'm bombing down a switchback going fast and just catch the wrong rock. This is after two hospital visit. I catch the wrong rock and break my fibula. This is last April.

So a week after Hyner I work myself back from the heart thing. I go out training. I break my fibula.

You have had some bad luck. Yeah. Oh, it gets it. I break the fibula. I come home. I go, maybe it's just a sprain. Whatever. I go the next day. Did you lose face plants when you tripped?

No. So, that's where they put me in a boot.

Dan LaMorte56:00

No, I'm pretty good at falling now. Yeah. Yeah. Jersey and pencil. Dude, I know how to fall. I know how to fall with the arm up right over one eye so you don't catch anything. I know how to angle away from I usually keep my phone in the handheld bottle. I know how to tuck the phone. I've broken like three phones on the trails,

But I think Oh, I don't The face is good.

Dan LaMorte56:21

They tell me, "Just your fibula's it broke where it connects the ankle." They're like, "You're not going to need surgery." Yeah.

Just [ __ ] relax. So, my wife goes, "I'm going out to do shows tonight. Just relax. Don't do anything." I say, "Yeah, sure." So, she leaves. I take the boot and the crutches and I walk, you know, quarter mile to the dispensary. I get a joint. I just light the joint. I'm walking home. I've been a stoner for half my life, dude. It's just, it's like water to me. It's nothing. It is what it is. And uh I'm getting closer to the apartment. I'm in the boot and the crutches and I'm like, "Something ain't right.

I just know something ain't right." That's the last thought that I have. And then I go in the elevator, collapse unconscious, smash my face off the metal railing of the elevator. I get 10 stitches in my eye. I lose consciousness.

So that's bleeding like crazy when you don't. And I lose conscious. I don't I don't remember any. This whole day is gone. I wake up the next morning in my mother-in-law's basement cuz I couldn't go back to the apartment. She had like a walk-in and I'm just I'm like, "What's happening?" Like it was one of those like in I wake up in a different house. Wait, how did you get to the basement?

I go to They take me to the hospital. My My mother-in-law at that lives uh I was living in Jersey City at the time. As you could tell from my verbiage, I'm going through a divorce. Uh at this point, I'm living in my apartment with my wife. And I guess in the when I come to I call my wife and I tell her something happened. She calls her mom. Her mom comes over, calls the ambulance. The ambulance comes to the apartment. I don't have any recollection.

Dan LaMorte57:56

I was like uh what is that? 50 First Dates 10 the movie with 10-second Tom I'm doing that apparently the EMT guy he looked like my buddy that's an ultr runner that I run with and I kept going I know you we run together and the guy was like no no no we don't and I did that for like oh I was just asking the same three questions I was saying are you a runner I was asking how the dog was like I just kept asking the same stuff they take me to the hospital I had a traumatic head injury you know got the stitches in the eye but I don't remember any of the hospital.

I all I remember is coming to the next day because uh my parents didn't want to leave me alone cuz my mom's a nurse, very protective. So, my mother-in-law had a big house in Jersey City, so we just all stayed there. So, you figure my last memory is stepping outside to smoke a joint. I wake up the next morning in my mother-in-law's basement, surrounded by my parents and my mother-in-law, and I'm just like,

Dan LaMorte58:49

I'm like, "What what did I smoke?" Like, this this sucks.

Dan LaMorte58:59

Yeah, and that was that was it. That was like a really I would say that event, if I had to trace it, like if I'm being if I'm being an accountable man, that is probably the event that led to my divorce.

Dan LaMorte59:14

Because I think that is when my wife really cuz she is not a runner. She did not understand this component of me. This was a part of me before we met.

Yeah. And I think she saw me go to the hospital twice and now I'm, you know, my face was in really bad shape. I had stitches in my eyes. I'm in a bed for the third hospital visit now. I just I don't think any part of her saw that as being like this is a healthy behavior for him, which rightfully so. How could you look at for for some reason I look at all this happening and I tell myself these are not signs to stop. These are signs that what I'm doing is incredibly worth it because look how hard the chase is.

Dan LaMorte59:54

Look at this chase. Look at how grueling it's been. There's no way this isn't worth it.

If I give into this now, who am I?

Why did I go through all this? You know, I need to see this [ __ ] through.

Dan LaMorte1:00:05

And I just think she knew that there was not going to be a world where I stopped training. And because there wasn't, dude, from that after the broken fibula.

Dan LaMorte1:00:14

I don't go I'm not a P I don't I'm not a PT guy, you I if you were to see my car parked in front of the studio, you'd think I'm like a a PT on the lamb. It's just filled with slant boards, foam roller, I mean massage guns, normate boots. I got everything in here.

Dan LaMorte1:00:29

So, I I rehab the fibula myself.

And to the point where like not only over the last few months do I come back from the fibula injury, and I'm I just turned 31 this week, so it's the oldest I've obviously ever been. I come back in the last few months. I PR my 5K, my 10K, my half marathon, my marathon, and my 50k. I'm putting in 70 and 80 mile weeks regularly. Jesus, I'm lifting now. I I'm doing at least 100 to 200 push-ups a day. I just come back from that with such

I don't know what it did. It was like that snapped something into me. That being said, my wife never communicated that. I mean, she communicated that she didn't agree with the running.

Dan LaMorte1:02:25

So like my wife leaves me a few weeks later my grandfather dies and the first big death I've had in my life. I was I've been very lucky to have all of my grandparents alive. All of my grandparents, still alive, very close with all of them. Okay.

My grandfather specifically was

He was the guy, you know, like he was

There wasn't a single person in his life who in the last few weeks of his life did not fly in to see him. He was that kind of guy. Every single person in his life that was still alive flew in, whether it was from Colorado, Florida, and they came in to see him. Yeah.

Because he was that guy. He was the nicest guy in the world. And that's when again it's I think guys like us, we're all mentality. And this is when I start to see right like weight loss being nonlinear and having to always keep working and going through hard things. You know, my wife leaves me and that is objectively the most challenging thing. I didn't see it coming. I had no idea. This was my best friend. We worked together. We toured together. We hung out.

Dan LaMorte1:03:27

Best buddy. You know, you go to the family group chat. She's the one sending texts to my parents. Look what we're doing. Like I never never in a million years if you told me your wife's leaving you tomorrow, I would have laughed in your face.

It was one of those situations where she just came to me and said, "Hey, it's over."

Dan LaMorte1:04:42

I knew there were problems, right? Like hindsight is off. I knew there were issues. But here's the thing. My wife

Very very well-known, you know, like millions of followers, big fan base, like the kind of person who I'm not even saying it in a braggadocious way because it's not about me, but like when we would go to the airport out to dinner, there's pictures, there's people stopping us. It's that kind of life, you know, where she is this kind of big persona. Yeah.

So, it's hard to like know what issues were our issues and what issues were comedy issues cuz we're not living a normal life.

Dan LaMorte1:05:15

You know, so she goes through this situation uh over a year ago where she has a video of her on stage go viral in the wrong way. Like she goes she gets essentially cancelled by like people who are saying she's very they don't like her. They don't like that she yelled at this heckler and it changes the course of our life.

Dan LaMorte1:05:35

Yes. Yes. And then she puts the video online and it goes in a negative way for her.

Dan LaMorte1:05:44

Precisely, but in a level that I've never seen. Like I don't

I wouldn't even be able to communicate to you what that was like. Like it we go to bed at night and I go, "Don't worry, babe. This is going to be nothing." We wake up the next morning, she has three missed calls from TMZ. And that's when I'm like, ah, this isn't gonna be nothing. You know, it it gets to the point like this sounds like a scene in a movie. It gets to the point where we're doing shows in another country. We're in the back of an Uber on the way to the airport and she's on her phone, you know, on social media.

And I'm not a big I like to just sit and I'm like I'm a big raw dogger on planes. I like doing nothing and just sitting there. I'm fine. I got nothing between the [ __ ] ears, dude. I So I'm just sitting in Uber and I start panicking because I hear what the radio's playing. This is another country. We're in the back of the Uber and they are saying my wife's name by name talking about what she did on stage and how unfunny they found her.

And I'm trying to like look at the Uber driver like [ __ ] lower that [ __ ] But then she eventually hears it.

Dan LaMorte1:06:48

She just screamed at a guy. That was it. She just lost her cool.

Dan LaMorte1:06:54

No. No. What happened is someone took the clip and put it on X. So, it was fine on Instagram and Facebook, but they put it on X. And X is more of

Dan LaMorte1:07:06

Support, and you'll have more of the angry conservative voice who just inherently, what I've learned through being in show business is those kinds of men will have certain opinions on women just based off them being a woman, that women will not be as funny or something. So, you have that group of men now amplifying the video. And I mean, dude, she gets canceled on like a mask. Like, this is millions of people. We have to cancel shows because of death threats. We need to the first show we do back.

We need to have a guy with death threats.

It's just the way social media is now.

But I mean, she must have said some people must scream at the guy and the people didn't like it.

That's crazy.

Dan LaMorte1:07:42

Why you think she was in the wrong like she should have been she should have done a better job. She was literally just getting cancelled because they thought she did a bad job on stage.

Oh my god. It wasn't like they were like, "Man, I can't believe it wasn't like a Kramer meltdown where she says the end." Like she it's just she's going they are so angry at the lack of humor in it.

But what happens now is like nobody knows what it's like to go through that. I don't know what it's like. I know what it's like to be the partner of someone and how scary it is to see them completely change. You know what it does. If you don't remove yourself from the phone and you go more into the phone when everyone on the phone is literally telling you to go kill yourself or something like that,

It it's going to mess you up. And I have the wherewithal to know this. I don't think she did. And she just kept consuming every article about her, reading every comment, watching every video. And I just think that, you know, she was able to convince herself that maybe I was the problem at by the end of it. But like I I think if she was to really track it down, that event was a really big catalyst to other issues in our relationship. And then the running was just a thing she really didn't agree with and didn't understand it.

And then that was just used as like the the jumping off point.

Dan LaMorte1:08:54

But to be fair, man, it's like there are some moments where I'm angry, you know, specifically because of how quickly my life changed. You know, I I lost my home. We had a dog. You know, she had the dog for a year before me. So obvious

Everything changed immediately.

So there's some anger there. But when I look back at it like I lived my dream my whole life I wanted to be an internationally touring stand-up comedian. And how cool that I did this with someone I was married to. We made thousands and thousands of people laugh. We would go on stage together at the end of show. So, we'd each do our own set and then we'd go on stage together at the end and we'd just improvise on the spot together and we had this beautiful chemistry and it worked.

And we sold out shows in Australia, in Madrid, in Milan. Dude, we you name it, we performed there. We've performed in Copenhagen. We've performed in Amsterdam, Roderdam, everywhere.

Dan LaMorte1:09:57

Yeah. Yeah. We were like, we had a really hot moment for a second, you know, we had a big Live Nation tour out there. So, when people go, "Are you angry?" And it's like maybe, but it's like I lived a dream for 3 years. I feel like for 3 years I was a rock star. And yeah, it sucks that it all ended. But how cool. I lived a dream. And like this was my best friend. She was my best friend before we dated. It's hard for me to say anything negative about her.

I just think,

You know, some people if they don't work on what's going on up there, it's easy to make those around them enemies. For me, you know, when I when I spend 2, three hours a day out on the trails,

You can't lie to yourself out there.

Dan LaMorte1:10:35

Right. I mean, you even if there's something in your life that's bothering you, when you bring it out to the run, you're like, "Fuck, I'm wrong."

Dan LaMorte1:10:41

I did something wrong here. Like, you could really look at yourself and be like, so runners, I think, have more wherewithal to to look inside. Some maybe some are out there delusional, but I know me, I'm very reflective in nature.

Dan LaMorte1:11:59

But

Dan LaMorte1:12:29

I agree. And then even in the interim, right? So, like I move out of the apartment and then within So, I have uh she tells me all of this is happening right before I have a gig in Chicago. So, I fly to Chicago. You know how crazy that I mean, I literally do this on the way to the airport. I can't.

So, I'm in the back of an Uber on the way to And I'm like

Dan LaMorte1:12:50

No, no, in person in the apartment and I'm shocked, but I'm the kind of guy who like I love Ubers. I never understand people who go, "Oh, the Uber driver talked to me." The second I land in Chicago and I'm in the back of that Uber, I'm a very big gut feeling person. Yeah. I can know pretty quickly if this is a good person or not. And this woman, I could just tell she had some [ __ ] trauma in her that she wanted to come out.

So, she's like, "How are you doing?" I'm like, "Honestly, miss, my wife left me this morning. I'm getting divorced. I'm supposed to do a show tonight. I have no idea how I am." And what this leads to 45 minutes of maybe the best heartto-heart I've ever had in an Uber. woman, she's telling me how she's selling her house because it's time to take a trip. She lost her son. Like really moving [ __ ] And uh I don't know, there was something about like that immediacy of it where I was like, man, I kind of love just that connection, you know?

So, but Chicago was really tough. But I end up putting in some good runs, you know, as it happens and when these things uh and then I get back from Chicago and it becomes pretty clear that it's fully happening. But I have to go to LA. I'm supposed to headline the comedy store for the first time. Oh man.

And my she was coming, my parents were coming. It was a whole big trip. So now I'm out in LA with just my parents alone

Dan LaMorte1:14:03

She my wife doesn't come. No. No. So I'm out there by myself. Uh which is on you instantly.

Yeah. Yeah. That was the problem is like she flipped the switch like how I flipped the switch. She like she went she went out cold. That was actually weirdly perfect timing but bad timing cuz I was supposed to be I was in peak training week for an 100k that ended up getting cancelled. It was in Virginia. It snows four inches and they cancel it. I was already in Virginia.

Dan LaMorte1:14:29

Oh, dude. I was so mad because I was really like 70 80 mile weeks. I was doing everything I was supposed to. But that week in LA like I'm still paying for cuz the Virginia 100k was flat and that was perfect for me cuz I'm coming back from the broken fibula. I was training all flat just to be safe.

I get out to LA. It's my peak week. They I love Runyon Canyon. I love Griffith Park. I put in 82 miles and I climb like 11,000 ft. Yeah.

And I'm a good climber, but when you're going from a flat block to now here's 80 miles with 11,000. I

I'm still recovering from injuries from that. I've had to take some down. Like I peaked too aggressively. It was so fun to like climb that week, but that was like the divorce getting the worst of me there. Like I pushed too hard. I couldn't feel anything.

And now I've had to really tone it down. Yeah,

But that LA trip was really a mind [ __ ] And then I come home from that and that's when I get the call like, "Hey, Pop's not doing well."

So I go visit him and

You know I I I come from a very glass half full family,

But I'm a realist. Yeah.

To the point. And I visit him in the hospital and he's 90. He was 90. He was about to turn 95.

Dan LaMorte1:15:43

And a great run. I mean, you know, 10 grandchildren, almost 10 great grandchildren, a loving family. But I noticed pretty quickly. I'm like, he's going to die. Whether it's next year guys tend to do

Just the breathing though, you know, he was like pretty strong. But like I was like, all right. So, because of the divorce,

I'm now in this really interesting place where he lives 15 minutes at this point. I'm staying at my parents. He lives 15 minutes from there. I spend the last month of my grandfather's life with him.

I'm there almost every day. talk to you. He's like

Talking. Yeah. Yeah. Changing his diapers, you know, talking. I mean, he pulls me aside one day and and he just he goes, "Listen, I love you. It's it for me." He goes, "I I need you to know that. I am going to die, but I love you. Uh, you know, I'll look over you." Stuff like he knew. It was very moving stuff.

Dan LaMorte1:16:32

And I want to say that it was like

I don't know. It it it made everything okay, weirdly about the divorce. Like it was hard to get too upset about that cuz I saw like I saw what the people who are really there for those who love them, what they really do in those situations. And I saw it with him and how everyone came out for him. And

I had I had no malice anymore towards the divorce cuz I was like, I got to spend a month with this guy who was the coolest guy that I ever knew. Like he was just

He was everything you want in a man. He was loving. He was strong. When we were kids, he he was that kind of guy. He would rip the phone book in half with his hands. He was he was a a bedsty police officer. He was a great baseball player. That's how we why we all play baseball. He tried out for the Yankees, hit a home run off Lefty Gomez. It was like his claim to fame.

Dan LaMorte1:17:19

No [ __ ]

Dan LaMorte1:17:33

That was his claim to fame. hit a home run off him in a try out for the Yankees. He played for the Air Force baseball team. Just a great guy. And it I was so lucky, right? Because like I said, he was such a special man that all of the relatives that live far away, they come in and they're not coming in for a day or two. My aunts are coming in for 2 weeks. My cousins are coming in for 3 weeks.

So, I'm going through the hardest time of my life

And I am just surrounded by all of my family and they all know what I'm going through. You know, I knew pretty quickly

That to get through something this big, you need to tell those around you, you can't just hide it.

So, I opened up to my cousin and like

They saved me, man. Like, not that I was thinking of doing anything stupid, but if it wasn't if I didn't have that love around me, like it it rewrote the whole script. And then I'm such a big believer of forward momentum that I always told myself that if I wanted to do an 100 again, it would have to be a small local one. I I'm not I don't I can't go to these big races. And I just say, "Fuck it, dude." And I throw my name in for Leadville, thinking nothing of it.

It's the only one of the big ones you don't need a qualification for. You could just put in a story about yourself.

Dan LaMorte1:18:43

Yeah. Yeah. They ask for like, "Do you have an interesting story that got you to the star?"

Dan LaMorte1:18:49

You should.

Dan LaMorte1:19:09

Yeah.

Dan LaMorte1:19:21

People have said that they've done it that way and they succeed at Leadville doing it themselves. They I've I've heard that it's almost some people find it beneficial because Leadville has become so commercialized that there's like thousands and thousands of crew members that some people end up losing time at the aid stations cuz they don't know where the hell their crew is.

Dan LaMorte1:19:40

But anyway, I throw my name in for Leadville. I put the little story. I want to say I think nothing of it, but they DM me on Instagram being like, "Hey, we're big fans. Cool to see that you're in the lottery. Good luck." So, I'm like, "I interesting." You know, and uh so my grandfather ends up passing and we do the the funeral and uh some family comes in and my grandmother's side I don't know that much. They they live in, you know, different places and talking to them and uh they're like, "What do you do?" I'm like, "I'm a runner." They go, "Oh, our son's a mountain biker." They're like, "We actually live out in Colorado.

He's he's thinking of doing this big mountain bike race this year. We grew up around it." I was like, "What race?" They're like, "It's called the Leadville 100." I was like, "You know Leadville?" They're like, "Oh, we have a cabin in Twin Lakes, which is one of the most famous aid stations. They've been cooking steak for the runners for years." So this family that I have never met before,

They have a cabin in Twin Lakes. So I'm like, "Is this not a sign?" So then the next week I get into Leadville. Uh I find out that I got in to run it and like this situation where I just said screw it. I'm driving down to Tennessee to hang out with Ken. I go, you know what? I lost a lot of money in the divorce and I lost a lot of my work because we toured together. So like all of our dates were together until April and because she has a bigger following, she got them all.

So like I'm not doing great. Okay. But I have enough of a saved up that I was like I start looking for places in Leadville and I find a summer house, a two-bedroom in Leadville and I go, "Fuck it, dude." So I signed the contract. I'm going to live in Leadville for like a little over two months this summer.

Dan LaMorte1:21:19

Yeah. I'm going out there in June and the race is the end of August.

Dan LaMorte1:21:26

World's End. I'm going to recover for one week after World's End and then I'm going to drive from New Jersey to Colorado. I'm going to do a 10 city tour along the way and I'm just going to stay out there and spend a few months out in the mountains. You know,

Dan LaMorte1:21:40

Yeah. And it's like, am I happy that this is the way the year is starting? Like, yeah, weirdly I am happy that I get to do Leadville and it sucks that divorce is what like put this path forward, but there's no world where I just tell my wife I'm moving to Leadville for 2 months. you know, this population 30,000 town.

Dan LaMorte1:22:05

Yeah, I I do think that my ideal partner probably would be more in touch with nature just cuz

The way standup has gone lately. Uh

I'm not someone who cares about money. I don't care about fame. I don't care about social media. And that's all that comedy is now. How much can you make on this brand deal? How big is your following? How many times a week are you posting?

Dan LaMorte1:22:33

I hate it. I'm not a vapid guy. I don't know if I've done enough mushrooms to get rid of that ego a little bit, but I don't have the same ego that other standups do have, which I wish I did because I don't have that shark in me to just eat everyone around me alive. That shark comes out on the trails and running, you know? So, I think my ideal partner is probably a runner because as as fun as it was to work with another comedian, I don't think you and your wife should share the job.

Maybe maybe share the the hobby.

Dan LaMorte1:23:02

But it that being said, it worked when we did it. It just ended up not.

Dan LaMorte1:23:13

Hatred.

No, I I'm an old school guy. I love cliff blocks.

Dan LaMorte1:23:18

Yeah. Love them to death. Uh, my stomach handles them easy and I love untapped maple syrup gels.

My stomach could handle the the maple syrup better than the gels. I'm a big Tailwind guy.

Dan LaMorte1:23:30

No, I've been on them a little bit recently hearing David Ro speak about them.

Yeah,

Dan LaMorte1:24:42

Not too much. Uh, I know the only time me and Rogan have ever had any communication was he saw me make a joke about running a 55 milei race on mushrooms and he liked it and followed me and like maybe sent a little but we never talked further than that which I was always like man if there's one I was like I am like I'm like if Goggins was doing standup and not winning races you know I'm like I'm like I'd be perfect for his audience but no I don't know the Austin crew that well I've spent like I've gotten to spend some time around Chappelle when he's in the city and it's just interesting to be around.

He's like a very I like I'm fascinated by people's whose energy is like that magnetic, you know? That's why I've always found myself more

I become friends with musicians way more than comics because there's something about that frontman energy that I love. But Chappelle's one of the few comics who has that.

Dan LaMorte1:25:35

But now I'm thinking maybe more of like maybe I'll go to Austin, spend some time there. Maybe if I like Colorado because comedy's in a weird place now where as long as you live

Close enough to an airport

Could live wherever. I mean Baretti lives in Nashville, you know, it's like as long as as if you have the road work, you can make it work from wherever. You don't need to live in New York or LA anymore.

Dan LaMorte1:26:09

Yeah. That's how I found out about Courtney, which Courtney is like my favorite ultrarunner of all time. I mean, I don't think there's someone who inspires me more than her. And like I knew her because Joe put her on years ago.

Dan LaMorte1:26:20

And then from that, you could just take in everything that she's done.

Dan LaMorte1:26:27

I have not met Cam. You know, again, same thing. were like circles that are close to each other like uh uh that that dude Killian who not Joure the Killian Cor who just won all the 200s last year. He was just I know Killian really

Because his buddy is my coach. Uh he coaches with Joe Corsion at the Everyday Ultra podcast.

Dan LaMorte1:26:46

And Joe, I mean

He is my coach, but it's only because he's the only one who could deal with me. Like I don't follow the plan unfortunately. But yeah, the so Killian was just out with Cam and I see that I'm like I want to that's why I don't do many comedy podcasts anymore. I'd actually rather do more of the running and fitness space just cuz I have more fun with those kinds of people. I like being out in nature and running. And the amount of like just from social media buddies that I've made through this when I announced I was doing Leadville like the offers that I had for like help like a former Leadville champion from 2023 offered to train with me.

You know Don Reichol who's a professional runner out in Colorado was like I'd love to pace you if you'd have me. And it's like yeah come I would love to have a professional run. Like that's what I love about the ultr running community. You say I'm going for a goal.

Everyone goes how could I help you get there? In comedy, you say, "I'm going for a goal." They go, "How can we get up before he does?"

Dan LaMorte1:27:45

Exactly. In Ultra, there's no sabotage. That's why I love having the two lives because it makes the comedy life okay to me cuz it makes me feel icky.

Dan LaMorte1:29:25

Just love hating.

Dan LaMorte1:29:58

Also, you're mad at this guy who's deciding to dedicate his life to a good goal.

Dan LaMorte1:30:05

You're mad at a guy who's like, "Yeah, I'm going to try to run faster. Oh, screw you." Like, come on.

Dan LaMorte1:30:11

The things like when when I would read some of the things people would say to me on Instagram and I got to a point where I just can't read any comments. It's not what the hell am I gonna No. I've never read anything been like that made the day a little better. Yeah. Never. But the thing some people have confidence in saying online like even if their face is on their profile, it's like are you are you for real right now? Like what's what's happened in your life?

Dan LaMorte1:31:10

"No, and you're not going to bother us." Well, some of us some comics are incredibly thin skinned, but like I don't know, man. I when I started getting stage time in New York, I had to get it by selling tickets in Time Square.

So, it's like that life hardens you especially when you're not someone who likes talking like to strangers and then you just have to ask them to buy $40 of tickets.

Like that [ __ ] hardens you, you know?

So, it's like what is your online comment going to do that a random German tourist and yell at me in Time Square?

Dan LaMorte1:31:37

But I hate when it's like a guy like Trudeau who's doing something. But it's I I think it's because and as someone who used to be very heavy, like you get you get really like insecure when people do things that challenge yourself.

Dan LaMorte1:31:49

Like I even it's been in my head. I don't know why. On the drive up yesterday, I stopped somewhere in Virginia or something and I get uh like a half gallon of Smart Water and the woman at the front, she goes, "We're running a deal on that. It's like 150 for an extra for like gallon." I was like, "Oh yeah, I'll go grab that. I love I drink so much water. And I bring it back and she's just like, I don't know how you do that.

I've never drank that much water in my entire life. She's like, when I have like this much, I get a pain in my side. And like I looked at her and in my eye and like it sounds [ __ ] up, but the first thought I had in my head was like, I can't believe I used to be fatter than this woman. Like this woman is telling me that the water I'm about to drink over the next 5 hours, she hasn't consumed in her entire life.

And she thinks that it's the thing causing the pain. And it's like, no, that you the water is probably the only healthy thing you've introduced to your system. That's why you're hurting.

Your body is like, "What the hell? This is not soda." But I see like someone like her probably sees a guy like Truit and hates that because when I was like her, I hated the guy buying the water. I hated the guy running, you know? So, it's like I understand every side of it. Like I had a guy leave a comment recently because uh a lot of times

I'm trying to post like some more videos running. like if I have ideas while I'm out there, I'll just think. And I

He had left the comment where he was like, "Why do you put videos up when you're running and talking?"

He was like, "Do you think you're better than other people cuz you could do that?" He's like, "Just do it behind a desk like a normal person."

Dan LaMorte1:34:28

And then when I hear something like that, I had like when he was like, "Do you think you're better than everyone else?" I was like, "Absolutely not." Because I have been everybody else. Like that's kind of the point of this.

But mirroring what you said, I was like, "If you are the kind of person who sees a video of someone running, gets so upset that you send him a message, well then yes, objectively I am better than you." That's right.

Like you are the person I'm better than. No one else but you. I am. Like, and that's and comments like that. Yeah, just you. It's just this one specific guy. And it's also like, you're following a stand-up comedian who runs ultras. Why were you looking for normal? This was the wrong spot. I'm clearly unhinged to a certain level.

Yeah.

Dan LaMorte1:36:07

Oh, I mean when he posts videos of himself training, he has what I would describe to be mountain legs. Yes.

Like there's runner's legs and then there's mountain legs. He has like those veiny mountain legs.

Dan LaMorte1:36:34

Yeah. And it's like Goggins the same way. But like that's triggered like forth. It's become like the stereotypical thing, right? To go back when I was in that hospital for the second ICU stint. I'll never forget it, man. The doctor comes in like this is the heart s the guy who does heart surgeries at the freaking hospital. Then he comes in and he goes, "Huh? Ultramarathon?" Yeah. He goes, "Well, looks like you're not David Goggins, huh?" And I was like, "For a [ __ ] doctor to say it." Also, yes, I'm not David.

Like, I know that.

Dan LaMorte1:37:04

I'm Dan LaMorte. I've been a comedian since I'm 19. Yeah, I'm softer than him. I'm aware. Like,

Dan LaMorte1:37:11

I know. It's this and that that saying has never left my head because it's just been like no I'm not him. I don't want to be him. Why why is that even coming up while you're taking care of me in a hospital?

Dan LaMorte1:37:24

But yeah, like you you you're the level of fast though that I was so bummed that I've been taking about two weeks off right now for some right foot issues and you sent me the workout you were going to do today, yesterday, and I was like, man, there's not even a world where I could do this right now. Like I I got a [ __ ] foot and I there's no way with a good foot I'm keeping up with this pace.

Dan LaMorte1:39:40

You're who I got that from, the 10 a day. I mean, I noticed real changes in my running and my physical ability when I changed to just 10 miles a It's amazing.

Dan LaMorte1:40:34

That aspect I understand like the discom uh I probably just comes from being fat my whole like speed was never anything that I had but like even when I

My PRs when they've happened they've never been intentional it's just when I'm really hurting and I'm like let's see so like right I PR my half marathon maybe two and a half weeks ago.

Dan LaMorte1:40:56

Cuz my right foot was killing me

And I took a few days off

And then it started to feel okay and I have this weird thing. It's the worst tendency that I have when I am hurt. I decide to then go out and do the hardest run I could possibly do to see how hurt I am.

Dan LaMorte1:41:18

I was limping and I went out to the trail and I for me it was fast. I ran a 140 half marathon, which was my PR. I had no intention of doing it. I was in pants and a sweatshirt. Just went for it. Uh I was going to just do an easy 10 mile run. And then this douche comes flying next to me. And he does that thing where like you if you're running fast, just run fast. You don't have to go keep it up. You're doing great.

You're only saying that cuz you're moving faster than me. So then that's all I need to hear to be like half marathon PR. That's funny.

And then that led to just weeks of limping. So that's when like I actually reflip the entire script and uh I bought a new notebook and I was like every single thing you do is going in this notebook. Every workout, everything you eat, everything you do during the day and if it doesn't move the needle closer to the finish line of Leadville, you need to seriously look at it. And I've gone when I tell you I've gone insane with recovery the last few weeks, I read online, I've I've limited it down to it's either the peroneal tendinitis or a stress fracture.

So, I'm going with peroneal tendinitis.

And I read online deadlifts, squats, uh, weighted calf raises.

Dan LaMorte1:42:31

No.

Dan LaMorte1:42:33

I don't like them.

Dan LaMorte1:42:37

No,

Dan LaMorte1:42:39

I've seen you on those.

Dan LaMorte1:44:17

The algorithm knows when I'm hurt. So it it will show me every ad for plantar fasciitis and I have seen you with these insults on my on my Facebook.

Dan LaMorte1:44:33

I've just been going if you tell me if I read online and I read something that says deadlifting and weighted calf raises. Like this is an exaggeration. If I read that that will make it go away, I go, "Roger that." All right. So, like I haven't deadlifted since I was a college athlete.

I've deadlifted I want to say in the last two weeks maybe eight times. I've done four times a week each week. I've got my deadlift up a little over 225 now, which I'm happy. I haven't done it since college, you know.

Uh squatting again, calf raises, man. I put one of those Olympic 25 lb plates on the floor, so it's a little thicker. That's right. And I just grabbed dumb. I'm tell I'm doing 10 sets of like 40 reps on calf a I'm doing like 400 calf raises a day. I've just been nuts. And it's I've noticed like it's starting to feel better because like when you're in your 20s, you could kind of get away with being like, "Yeah, I'm just going to do the running and stuff, but like I've noticed with enough injuries built up, it's like, "No, no, I really need to strengthen this whole thing." And it's kind of been so fun.

Like it it makes the injury almost okay. Like I used to get so depressed when I'd get hurt. And now I'm amped up. Like every morning I'm waking up and it feels a little better. It feels like I just completed like a really hard training run cuz it's like I did the goal. I got the foot a little better. And I think that mindset like runners like are get so upset when they get hurt, especially ultra runners. It's like just flip the mindset and say you're going to become an ultra healer, you know, do some weird [ __ ] like that and just become obsessed with that.

And uh so like the last few weeks has been that and it's been so cool because

The physical differences I see in my body from lifting again. And like I forget how cool it is to have muscles. Runners don't give a [ __ ] But I'm like, "Oh, I'm looking in the mirror again. I'm excited. I'm like, "Oh, this is awesome, man." Like the and it's been it's been so cool like to just to keep the journal, to keep the notebook, to have Leadville on the books and like to have this all going on simultaneously when I am going through like the hardest time of my life, which should be has been such a beautiful thing to have because it helps keep my head straight.

Dan LaMorte1:47:23

I agree with you. I have pretty tight calves. Uh when the doctor uh or when the internet was like, "Yeah, calves usually lead to that." I got so offended because it's the only part of my body that is a gigantic muscle. Like I the only big muscle I have is my And it's only cuz I used to be fat. Everyone's like, "How do you get legs like that? Is it from running?" I'm like, "Yeah, something like that." wear a 200lb backpack.

Yeah. Yeah. Get really into Wendy's for a decade, you know, and it's the best training you could have. But when I read that, I was like, "Oh, no way." But I I am starting to believe it's it's either that or when I broke the fibula and I decided to rehab that from myself. I think it changed the gate a little bit. Yeah.

But uh I also I'm longer on the right side than the left. My right leg's longer, so it makes sense that that's the side that always has issues.

Dan LaMorte1:48:29

Uh, one of my

The the one thing I'm so thankful for in life of being a comic is I feel like I've gotten like this Forest Gump type thing where I could kind of just gallivant through life and pick up weird friendships with like people in different areas.

Dan LaMorte1:48:43

That's kind of he's one of those early friends like I liked his music a lot. I really liked his writing and then we just vibed like he's he's a really cool dude and I was so thrilled when he told me that you guys were teaming up to work together cuz it's just

Dan LaMorte1:49:53

He's because he is the ultimate uh person to to be miserable with. Not that he's a miserable guy, but if you are in a bad mood, he is 100% willing to hear you. and he often gives like pretty solid advice.

He's well he's incredibly intelligent.

Dan LaMorte1:50:07

at the guys got away. He'll send me texts sometimes where I'm like I forgot how good of a writer he like I remember one time when I was going through a hard time he was just like listen the price of admission for being human is pain and I was like damn Mishka man I needed that.

Dan LaMorte1:51:13

But he would take that cuz I do the same thing. I'll tell anyone anything. And I forget that humans aren't like that. I'll be like, "Oh yeah, I'll get back to the I was there's this I'm like slowly trying to get into the brand space of things. I was very against it for a while. Like just as a comedian,

I didn't see a need

To take money from companies cuz I didn't want it to get in the way of my standup. But now it's starting to come into the running side of things. So I'm like willing to hear it more.

And there was this one company that I had a meeting with and it went really well. And then we were exchanging emails and I fell out of contact because, you know, my wife left me, my grandfather died, you know, these and they're like, "Hey Dan, where have you been?" And I just emailed them back. I'm like, "Listen, I'm going to get you the pitch next week. My grandfather died, my wife left me. It's just been a busy week." And then like I thought nothing of it.

And then I get this long email back. Oh my god, we're so sorry. And I'm like, "Oh, I just I was just letting them know why it is that way, you know?"

Dan LaMorte1:54:10

Yeah, I got an extra bedroom you could crash in my tiny Leadville house.

Dan LaMorte1:54:16

Absolutely. And it's beautiful. I mean, just surrounded by 14,000 ft mountains. I can't think of anything better.

Dan LaMorte1:54:33

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Strava Instagram. There's a good chance the heart rate's hidden on Strava because I'm stoned for most of the runs. So, you're not going to get all the data, but you could see the blueprints of how I do what I do.

Dan LaMorte1:55:04

I'll be speedy when you're doing the tour in New York. I'll be I'll be good for that.