I wanted the universe to feel sorry for me, as the four-time cancer survivor, type 1 diabetic and recovering alcoholic, who became an obstacle horse racer and defied it all. I decided to pick a fight, and that was the first part of my story, is I simply had to make a decision between living and dying, and I chose to live. I wanted more. Spartans, listen up. We need to sleep better.

So how do you sleep better?

Never thought about it before.

And so I met Jack.

I met Ascentia.

I had attention to the mattress to sleep on because it's loaded with chemicals.

Recovery, cooling, and pressure relief.

All in one mattress.

Up to 60% more deep and REM sleep. Less inflammation, faster bounce back. No

toxins, no EMFs, no BS. My buddy Jack over at Ascentia, he's kind enough to give us a code for

the Spartan community. That's Decca, that's tough mother of all of us. Use Spartan 25, get a discount,

prioritize your sleep so you can sleep faster you can do more

burpees you can train more you can get healthier when you sleep well you live well welcome to the hard way

podcast with Joe Ducena founder and CEO of Spartan races Joe Dissenter here CEO and founder of

Spartan host the Hardway podcast got my buddy Nick Klingensmith on the line. He's joining us. Welcome aboard, sir. Thanks, Joe. How are you doing? Good. You've had a rugged life. Where'd you grow up? Martha's Vingard. Doesn't sound like too rugged of a childhood. You know, it's tough to complain about my childhood. I liked where I grew up. I worked from a young age. It wasn't an after-school special, but, you know, they were, I grew up as a child in neglect and learned to be independent when I was young. Nick's been sick. When did you get sick? When did you find out you were sick? The first time I was diagnosed with cancer was 20 years ago in 2005. Shocker?

Yes and no.

When I was, I had an undiagnosed issue that had been going on at the time and I just started seeing doctor after doctor and when it finally was diagnosed as cancer, I wasn't surprised

because I kind of had a feeling, a sick sense of some kind that it was. At the same time, I was the only person I knew who had cancer. It's, you know, it's one of those things where you always feel like it's somebody else's problem until it becomes part of your life. How'd you stay positive? My mom had cancer. A lot of many members of my family had cancer. Like, how'd you stay positive?

You know, in the beginning, it was by picking a fight. It was me versus cancer. I, I talk trash

against cancer all the time. Later in years, during my second and third diagnosis, those were in

the time of social media. I would usually write post, just, you know,

FU cancer, I'm coming to get you. But if I'm being honest, my positivity waned quickly.

...