『Episode 65: Unapologetically Extreme: Aimee Warnke on Cancer, Comebacks, and the Triple Crown』のカバーアート

Episode 65: Unapologetically Extreme: Aimee Warnke on Cancer, Comebacks, and the Triple Crown

Episode 65: Unapologetically Extreme: Aimee Warnke on Cancer, Comebacks, and the Triple Crown

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This week on Endurance State of Mind, we sit down with one of the most fearless and inspiring athletes we've ever had on the show. Aimee Warnke. Active duty Army physical therapist with over 14 years of service. Former Ironman World Championship qualifier. Collegiate cyclist at Saint Louis University. And now, one of the most exciting names in the ultra running world.But Aimee's story doesn't follow a normal endurance athlete arc, and that's exactly why this episode matters.In 2024, as a brand new ultra runner with only a handful of races under her belt, Aimee showed up at Dinosaur Valley and won the 100K and the 100 miler outright. Not the women's race. The whole field. Two days later, her pre op scans came back with a diagnosis that would have stopped most people in their tracks: chondrosarcoma, a rare malignant bone tumor in her left pelvis. Doctors initially told her she'd need a hemipelvectomy within six months. Translation: cut out a major section of her pelvis. Translation behind the translation: she'd likely never run the way she does again.She refused the standard answer.Instead, Aimee, armed with her own clinical background and a refusal to accept the first diagnosis as the only diagnosis, advocated for herself, found a team of trauma surgeons willing to pursue a never before attempted 3D printed pelvic reconstruction using her own iliac crest, and asked for time to race the Dinosaur Valley 100 first. She got it. Today she's in surveillance and watchful waiting status. The tumor hasn't grown. Her mileage has.In this conversation, we go deep on the entire journey:How a junior high counselor noticed she was getting picked on for a speech impediment and quietly handed her a borrowed bike, an entry to a sprint triathlon, and the community that would change her life.Her early triathlon career: Age group Team USA at the 2008 ITU Long Course World Championships in Holland, the 2009 Half Ironman Worlds in Clearwater, the bike crash mid race that broke her clavicle and several ribs, the compound fracture surgery, and how she ended up qualifying for Ironman Canada through a Power Bar raffle she'd entered the same weekend (yes, really).Four years racing collegiate cycling at Saint Louis University, the team time trials, the breakaways, and what it taught her about being the only woman on the start line at the top level.The pivot to the Army, fourteen plus years of active duty service, deployments, becoming an Army Baylor DPT, and the side quest into Pacific Northwest backpacking, skiing, and obstacle course racing that quietly built the engine for everything that came next.Finding trail running through the Hawaii Spartan Ohana, watching the Hurt 100 from the volunteer side and thinking "this is insane, but I'm doing it someday," and eventually returning years later to win that very same race outright.The Dinosaur Valley 100K and 100 mile sweep, including how Zach (also racing the 100K that day) watched her pull away from the entire field and realized he was witnessing something special.The diagnosis. The dark month of trying to process a cancer diagnosis alone, before she told anyone, not her parents, not her best friend. The "rage runs" through tears between patient appointments. The phone call from her ortho oncologist that quietly changed everything.Javelina 100 and the femoral nerve hematoma that almost ended her race at mile 70, and what it took to come back from it.The freak infection in spring 2025 that left her unable to walk up a flight of stairs, the ER visit, the steroid course, the 3 week reset, and the comeback timeline that took her from zero running to a 100 mile training week in under five weeks, just in time for the Tahoe 200.Inside her Tahoe 200. Competing for the women's podium, the mid race mistake that cost her hours, the throw up and shake it off low point, the 35 minute nap that saved her race, and the last 18 miles of belting out '1985' with her pacer and finishing on a high note.What's next: Bigfoot 200 and Moab 240. The second and third legs of the Triple Crown. Her honest assessment of where she left time on the table and what she's coming back for.Her take on why women are winning ultras outright at the front of the field, and the mental traits she thinks separate the athletes who endure from the ones who keep moving forward.And the moment that hits the hardest: how she's turned her own diagnosis into a fundraising platform for under insured and uninsured kids battling cancer through CHRISTUS Children's of South Texas. 70% of chondrosarcoma patients are children, and most don't have the medical support Aimee does.If you've ever stood at a start line feeling like you don't belong, listened to a doctor tell you the only option, or felt the weight of doing something hard alone, this one's for you.QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE"I've allowed myself to be unapologetically extreme in my pursuits and chase the joy and adventure that is trail running." Aimee Warnke"We've only got one shot ...
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