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Tyler Bramlett was leading the ambitious life of being an entrepreneur while chasing dollars, cars, and prestige. Then he suffered a horrendous bicycling accident that shattered his femur and knee. He underwent multiple surgeries to repair the damage and was confined to bed for a year. Out of this ordeal, and recognizing the toxic fitness culture that he’d been in that is all-too-prevalent, Tyler founded WeShape, which encourages breaking free from that environment and shifting toward movement that feels good for the mind, body, and soul. WeShape is grounded in building confidence and body trust and not focusing on aesthetics and shaming those who don’t fit those ideals. He found that developing an inner cheerleader instead of an inner harsh critic was far more productive. He discovered that real transformation comes from moving smarter, not pushing harder. He created an approach centered on alignment, and mindful and joyful movement. The bottom line is the ability to live without feeling trapped in a body that hurts. For WASP listeners, he is offering a free online body movement assessment, which I’ve taken, which produces routines with a list of exercises you can do in 10 minutes each at home. These are accessible at weshape.com/wearesuperman. I’m a big stiff, so I’m looking forward to incorporating these into my current exercise routine. I hope you enjoy this enlightening chat with Tyler as much as I did.

Tyler Bramlett

weshape.com

Instagram @

Bill Stahl
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For number 400, I’m excited to bring you another story of amazing triumph at the Leadville Trail 100. On his fourth attempt, Brian Reynolds became the first double amputee to finish the iconic Race Across the Sky, in a time of 28:55:43. Brian last appeared on episode #189 in February, 2022 before he had ever attempted an ultra, but had already accomplished a lot in shorter races, including running a 16:49 5K on blades and setting several world records. The 2:58 marathoner lost his legs at age 4 due to meningococcemia, a bacterial blood infection, but decided not to let that define him. His first Leadville attempt in 2023 ended at Winfield, the halfway mark. He made it to Outward Bound, mile 77, last year. From each attempt he learned more about how to adapt his prosthetic legs to the challenge. His blades don’t have heels to help him balance on the uneven terrain, so they have treads, which are not meant to be used over rocky surfaces. Thus, they tore off, and Brian and his crew had to get inventive with duct tape. This year, Brian made new adaptations, plus he had spare legs that could be swapped by pacers, who were allowed to accompany him over the entire course. He also adjusted his training to include a lot more cross-training to develop the specific strength he would need, as well as his hydration and nutrition, which included him ingesting 23,000 calories during the race. It’s absolutely amazing, so I hope you are inspired by Brian’s story of dedication to finish the Leadville Trail 100.

Brian Reynolds

Instagram @brianreynoldsrunner

Bill Stahl
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Melissa Strong moved to Estes Park, Colorado outside of Rocky Mountain National Park and found herself drawn to hospitality industry so common in a tourist town. Working in restaurants is notorious for working long, hard hours, and sometimes partying just as hard. After spending much of her 20s immersed in that fast-paced, yet sedentary, lifestyle, someone introduced her to the world of rock climbing, for which she had an abundance of opportunities right out her front door. Gaining proficiency and solving climbing problems immediately resonated with Melissa, and soon rock climbing became her social circle and eventually her passion, leading her and her husband Adam to take frequent trips to climbing meccas in Texas and France, and becoming a guide herself. Parallel to this, she and Adam embarked on a dream to open their own restaurant in Estes Park. She overcame many obstacles to achieve this goal, including getting turned down for bank financing because she is a woman. The couple found and eventually purchased a historic restaurant in town and set about building it out into the dining establishment of their dreams. Melissa wanted to keep some of the building’s rustic character in their new restaurant, and learned about a technique using electricity to etch random lines in wood to make them look more “antique.” Adam built a machine to do this out of an old microwave oven transformer. While using this makeshift etcher, Melissa electrocuted herself. No matter how much she wanted to let go, the current forced her grip to get stronger. She should have died, but only a circuit breaker tripping saved her life. However, the damage was extensive. Melissa lost pretty much all of her fingers and thumbs, which is crushing for anyone, much less a rock climber. What followed were years of surgeries, pain and anguish, angels in the form of family, friends, and caregivers, and one daring surgeon who performed miracles to restore much of Melissa’s digits using techniques that no one outside of burn unit medicine would guess exist. She and Adam did open the acclaimed restaurants Bird & Jim and the Bird’s Nest in Estes Park, and she has improbably returned to rock climbing. Her story of fortitude has been chronicled in her riveting memoir “Climbing Through,” in which she describes all of the formidable challenges she encountered to realize her restaurant dream and her inspiring return to the rock climbing world she loves. I had a hard time putting the book down. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and on her web site, melissaistrong.com I think you’ll be impressed and amazed by how this dynamic woman persevered through such an incredible near-tragedy.

Melissa Strong

melissaistrong.com

Instagram and TikTok @melissaistrong

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Bill Stahl
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There are always numerous huge triumphs at the Leadville Trail 100. Watch the last two hours before the 30-hour cutoff and you will see the bulk of finishers, and every one of them has a story and has made considerable sacrifices to be there. Whether they are a rookie or 31-time finisher Eric Pence. Some are rebounding from addiction, obesity, or serious illnesses or injuries, or running to remember someone they lost. Over the next two weeks I’ll be highlighting two of my favorite stories. First up is the remarkable Adam Popp, who had his first Leadville finish in a time of 28:31:50, while running on a prosthetic leg. Adam has distinguished himself as a runner after serving this country in Afghanistan, where he was an EOD, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal specialist. Adam suffered severe injuries when a roadside bomb exploded, which he described in WASP episode #209 in May, 2022. Adam appeared again in episode #314 in September, 2024, chatting about the slew of incredible Guinness world records he set on treadmills at distances up to ultramarathons. He has excelled on the roads and smoother trails, with impressive achievements like setting a 100-mile amputee world record of 16:13:43, and winning the T61/63 division of the Boston Marathon. He has also run the venerable JFK 50 Mile seven times and completed an Ironman triathlon in 11:03:06. However, mountain trails called to him, and he ran but did not finish the Western States 100 in 2025. Leadville was a different story, and Adam, who is 47, describes the challenges that he faced and overcame running Hope Pass and other tough terrain on a prosthetic blade that doesn’t have four-way mobility like our ankles do. We also discuss how the course change due to the Willow Fire impacted his race, and about other issues facing amputee athletes racing away from the track. I hope Adam’s tenacity opens you up to what possibilities exist when you put your mind to it.

Adam Popp

Instagram @eodpopp

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Bill Stahl
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If you run or follow the ultramarathon world, you know who Harvey Lewis is. For the uninitiated, Harvey is a 15-time Badwater 135 finisher, including winning it in 2014 in 23:52:55 and in 2021 in 25:50:23, a time he almost matched this year at age 50. He is a backyard ultra recordholder by running 108 yards, which is 450 miles over 4½ days, at Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra. He is a worldwide running traveler adventurer, activist, vegan champion, and schoolteacher in Cincinnati who notably run-commutes to work. OK, that is the short list. And he is well-known as one of the truly nice guys in the sport. If you are watching this on the WASP YouTube channel, you can see Harvey in his other natural habitat, in his classroom wearing a shirt and tie. This wide-ranging episode follows a different format in that I gathered questions from runners that I posed to Harvey. Harvey had just returned from running the Last Soul Ultra in Germany, so many of the questions came from a run club over there that my good friend Artem Bituzki runs with. We cover everything from how he pulls off his run commuting, his sleep patterns during his backyard ultras, his recent 250 mile run from New York City to Washington, DC to highlight the civil rights in American history that was lost when the Treasury department changed the coin designs issued to commemorate the U.S.’s 250th anniversary, why he keeps going back to Badwater, and a lot more. If you wonder how Harvey has stayed ailment-free through all of these extreme competitions, he attributes much of it to his vegan diet. He gives the best explanation about why he is still a vegan, and all of the positives that diet has for animal welfare, the environment, and the planet in general. I loved that because he perfectly hit the nail on the head with his very logical and compassionate points, which are also the reasons I’ve embraced that diet, along with simply feeling great and more energetic. I greatly appreciate Harvey sharing so many tips with our listeners, and making this a really fun chat.

Harvey Lewis

Instagram @harveylewisultrarunner

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Bill Stahl
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Witness the birth of a new performance fuel called Raw Spark Energy. Through pure serendipity, I met Ryan Hanlon near the finish line of Boulderthon, where he was handing passing runners free samples of his Raw Spark Energy bar. Ryan is an entrepreneurial 21-year-old who has spent hours in the kitchen tinkering with ingredients to come up with an all-natural fuel made from actual whole food ingredients. It consists of honey, dates, oats, agave, chia seeds, lemon juice and zest, tapioca, and sea salt, and I can tell you that it tastes pretty darn great. Each package weighs in at 120 calories, including 28g of carbs. It’s rather fascinating listening to Ryan describe how he’s tweaked the recipe and his production techniques. Of course, his next steps lean heavily on getting these into athletes’ hands and stomachs through marketing. If you’re a local athlete, hit him up at rawspark@gmail.com and perhaps you two can come up with a partnership. This is a young man’s cool startup story and it has me pulling to see him succeed in the fast-growing endurance sports marketplace.

Ryan Hanlon

rawspark.com

rawspark@gmail.com

Instagram @rawspark.energy and ryanhanlon_2

Bill Stahl
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Colorado is known as a hotbed for running talent, and here’s an emerging star who accomplished something pretty extraordinary this summer. With cross country season upon us – my team’s first meet is this weekend – I want to introduce you to Golden High School’s Jackson Ferguson. Jackson had a very, very solid year as a sophomore, including finishing fourth at the State 5A Cross Country Championships, notching a 5K PR of 14:49.33 while finishing 12th at the Nike Southwest Regional cross country meet, and lowering his time in the 3200 meters by 30 seconds from his freshman year to 9:11.09 and placing second at the State track meet. Jackson parlayed all of that to be chosen for a spot on the USA team at the International U18 Mountain Racing Cup, a 4.6K competition in Gagliano del Capo in southern Italy on a rugged course with 191 meters of vertical gain that had many others at times hiking with their hands on their thighs. Competing against teams from 16 other countries, and despite getting knocked down in the first 100 meters, 16-year-old Jackson came away with the victory. Oh, did I mention that this was Jackson’s very first trail race? Jackson then parlayed that into another big win, notching the gold medal at the National High School Trail Championships in Salida, CO by 28 seconds in a very strong 31:39 for 5.4 miles. Jackson is a super nice guy who does a great job talking about this rather unique first international racing experience, as well as what it was like to duke it out this year with some of the big names in Colorado high school running, and what his hopes are for his next couple of years of high school and beyond.

Jackson Ferguson

Instagram @jackson_fergy

Bill Stahl
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I have at times brought up adventures and screw-ups that have occurred during some of my overseas travels. The usual things all of us have experienced like delayed and canceled flights and lost luggage. But I’ve never heard anyone have a series of travesties quite like Tina Weiss had on what should have been a dream trip of a lifetime to Italy that she had carefully planned. This was a trip that was badly needed to heal herself following a drawn-out ordeal with her dad’s gravely declining health, COVID, and then a botched dental surgery that left her in severe pain and unable to speak properly for three years. The trip from hell started from the time she first arrived at the airport to depart and found out she couldn’t leave. Then once in Italy, she got robbed not once, but twice, leaving her without money or her passport, and essentially stranded with very limited means to find her way out, much less get around or even feed herself. While trying to extricate herself from her predicament, it seemed like one catastrophe would pile on after another, often bringing back memories of past traumas in her life, including a sexual assault, and experiencing anti-semitism while growing up in Mississippi. Through each step of her surreal Italian ordeal, Tina learned profound lessons that she shares throughout her book, “Fear to Faith,” which is a riveting read not only because you want to keep turning the pages to see how she is going to escape her ongoing nightmare trip, but because of what knowledge she acquired about self-strength, problem-solving in the most challenging conditions, and human nature. Tina had already built several businesses and a great charity called the Hugs and Smiles Children’s Foundation, but this trip turned her into a puddle of frustration and emotions. Yet I found out while reading her book and in talking with her that she has developed a fierce strength, resilience, and determination to be able to battle anything that life will dish out. So it’s great that she is sharing these lessons in faith, survival, and self-discovery with others through her book and a workbook she has developed that will help anyone to keep moving forward.

Tina Weiss

tinaweiss.com

tina@tinaweiss.com

Facebook and LinkedIn Tina Weiss

Instagram @tinaweiss_author

YouTube @tinaweiss2744

Fear to Faith is available on Amazon

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

Subscribe to our Substack for my archive of articles of coaching tips developed from my more than three decades of experience, wild and funny stories from my long coaching career, the wit and wisdom of David, and highlights of some of the best WASP episodes from the past that I feel are worthwhile giving another listen.

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Register for the American Heroes Run: https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=133138