Brothers Inspire and Share Life Lessons Through Endurance Sports: Kyle and Brent Pease of the Kyle Pease Foundation

Lindsey Smith: Hi, I'm Lindsey Smith, welcoming you to Raise the Line with Osmosis from Elsevier where we explore ways to improve health and healthcare. 

Today, we have an especially inspiring episode featuring Kyle Pease and his brother Brent, who recently competed in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, a challenge they also took on together in 2018. For those unfamiliar, an Ironman is a 140.6 mile endurance event, combining swimming, biking, and running. 

What makes their story even more extraordinary is that Kyle, who was born with cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia, completes these races with Brent's assistance making them the first push assist brother duo to finish the grueling Ironman World Championship in Kona. With over 125 races under his belt, Kyle has become a leading disability advocate, demonstrating resilience and breaking barriers through sports. 

Brent, meanwhile, is the executive director of the Kyle Pease Foundation, an organization they co-founded to promote inclusion in sports in the workforce. Their book, Beyond the Finish and his work as a multi-sport coach further amplify their message of hope, resilience, and empowerment. Their latest Ironman journey is raising funds for the foundation's inclusive employment program, a cause close to their hearts as they champion a world that is more inclusive for individuals with disabilities. 

I'm excited to dive deeper into their remarkable journey and the impactful work their foundation is doing. We're thrilled to welcome both Kyle and Brent to our Year of the Zebra series, dedicated to raising awareness about rare diseases. 

Thanks so much for being here.

Brent Pease: Thank you. 

Kyle Pease: Thanks for having us.

Lindsey: Can you both introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about yourselves? Let's start with Kyle and then go to Brent.

Kyle: I'm Kyle Pease. I have cerebral palsy. I'm a brother, a son. I'm a sixth time Iron Man triathlete and I love to race with my brother. I'm also the co-founder of the Kyle Pease Foundation.

Brent: I'm Brent Pease, co-founder of the Kyle Pease Foundation, executive director of the Kyle Pease Foundation, and Kyle's brother,

Lindsey: Thank you so much for introducing yourselves. And you mentioned right there the foundation...can we start there and can you tell us a little bit about the purpose of the foundation and the wonderful work that your group is doing?

Brent: Yeah, so the mission of the Kyle Pease Foundation is to improve the lives of people with disabilities through sports and beyond. We started in 2011 with a mission rooted in sports -- just getting people with disabilities included in sports -- and what it's really grown to is where we say “and beyond” is just helping these athletes move beyond the finish...that the first 5K or the first marathon or Ironman that they do is really just the beginning of that journey. We've developed an inclusive employment program in the last six years and we are looking at different ways that we can foster inclusion everywhere for everybody living with a disability.

Lindsey: I think the inclusivity piece is so important here and I hope we continue to make great progress towards that as a world in general. I want to talk a little bit about you guys competing in the sport of triathlon and congratulations on your recent accomplishment as, I think, a two time Ironman. Is that correct?

Brent: Kyle's done six Ironmans now, but two Ironman World Championships, which is the big deal of the whole thing, the whole shooting match. So yeah, we've been doing Ironmans since 2013 together.

Lindsey: And why did you decide to get into the sport of triathlon and this endurance racing?

Kyle: It really reminds me of my life. I go through many ups and downs throughout my day just as I do in this sport. You get through a lot of different challenges throughout the competition just focusing on the idea that anything is truly possible. After I saw Brent compete in his first Ironman, I've always wanted to be an athlete and to get to do it with Brent is the best part. So I asked him. That's how this journey started and have evolved to today.

Lindsey: That's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And it's amazing to see how these races have become a shared journey for you both. I'm sure our audience is very interested about how this all works and how you're able to compete at the highest level of triathlon. What equipment strategies make this all possible? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Brent: Well, inclusion was always the name of the game, and so the equipment kind of had to meet those standards. There's a lot of people in this space in the triathlon world. For any listeners that might remember the father son Rick and Dick Hoyt, when they were doing it in the late eighties, they were kind of it. There was nobody doing anything like that. But if you look at a lot of the people doing what we do, like the bike, they're towing 'em. The run is these big bulky chairs and the boats are just kind of built for comfort. 

Our idea was that Kyle had to be included, he had to be part of the experience, he had to feel like a cyclist and he had to be an athlete, too. So, we found an inflatable kayak that satisfied that need that I tie to my waist. It's a lightweight kayak that helps Kyle sit upright, allows him to kind of captain the boat, captain the race from an upright seated position versus laying down. With the bike, Kyle sits on the front. I think there's lighter options. The towing would potentially be a little bit easier, but for us, that didn't make us feel like Kyle was a cyclist. So it's a specially made bike out of Canada from a company called Freedom Concepts. There are three wheels to help with the stability for Kyle's disability and transitions. And for the run, we use a specially designed run chair where I push Kyle. But all of those allow him to feel like an athlete to be included in the race, to not just be a passenger, and to be every bit the athlete that I'm being through 140.6 miles together.

Lindsey: And for our listeners, it’s 140.6 miles in all three sports -- doing swim, bike, run in that order -- so the level of fitness that you have to be in, to not only compete in Ironman but then to additionally help pull someone as well, is the highest of levels.

Brent: I mean for both of us. We did a training ride this summer – we’re in Atlanta, Georgia -- so we went from the beginning of the Silver Comet Trail, which is in Cobb County all the way to Anniston, Alabama. And Kyle had to do the whole ride. It was ninety-five miles and then we got to the end and I made him turn around and do two and a half out and two and a half back for a nice even hundred because his mind and body have to be ready for this too. 

What's really interesting to me is yes, I have to carry a very high level of fitness...I have to carry another human being for fourteen, fifteen hours. But when you look at Kyle's progression as an athlete, when you see how he looks every bit the part of an athlete, when he puts on those Oakleys, he's prepared his mind and body for the day too. Kyle mentioned it's like his life. I mean Ironman is, if you physically prepare, it's much more about what you can endure mentally, and that's why Kyle is such a skilled Ironman triathlete because his life has taught him how to endure physical and mental challenges from a much earlier age than many of us experience.

Lindsey: Absolutely, and I think Ironman is the ultimate challenge for sure. I know you guys have talked about your team behind you, your village, and I've heard you guys refer to them as your secret weapon. Can you speak a little bit about your team and your support system that has helped you accomplish these incredible feats like the Ironman?

Kyle: Yeah, absolutely. It starts with our parents who have taught us to always look at your possible rather than what you can't do. And then it goes to Brent’s wife, who is probably the biggest secret weapon we have. And then it goes to my niece and nephew, Brent’s daughter and son, and on then from there. 

Brent: Yeah, we have dozens of volunteers that come to these Ironmans. We have an operations manager, bike mechanic and all of these people that make the whole thing go, that are in transition with us that make sure the equipment works. And we think through all of these decisions. I mean, our bike is not the most aerodynamic bike, but our mechanic determined that aerodynamics at the expense of Kyle's ability to get through the race in comfort. So all of these decisions have been painfully scrutinized by the entire team. 

There's a picture where we're coming up to the bike turnaround in Hawaii, which is around mile sixty, and there's twenty or twenty-five people waiting for us, cheering for us. Every single one of them played a role in our success that day. So we'd love to tell you that we do these things in a vacuum and we're amazing humans and we can do it, but we're really nothing without that team.

Kyle: And the team in Hawaii really executed their brand because they were all over the course. So we would see two or three and then we would go one mile, then we would see the next group. So it was truly amazing to feel their love and their energy on the course.

Lindsey: Absolutely. And you guys have an incredible village behind you supporting you both. Can you talk a little bit about some of the highlights and some of the competitions that you guys have done together?

Kyle: Yeah, we have done over eighty races together. It might be more than that now, but the Ironman really speaks to us. So we have done six of those. We have also done the New York Marathon twice, the Boston Marathon once and the Marine Corps Marathon.. The foundation does about forty events a year. Most of them are at the local level. 

Lindsey: Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing those highlights. And as you were talking about all the races that you've done, all the work that you're doing with your foundation, I wanted to know how you manage it all between the training, the foundation, being a multi-sport coach as well. You have a family. How do you guys manage it all?

Brent: I would say that we don't, but that's the beauty of the secret weapon is that there's just so much support. Kyle mentioned it at the beginning...the parallels from Ironman to life. There's so many. Ironman is this process that takes months and sometimes years to get ready for and then you hit the finish line and you think it's going to be this watershed moment of like, okay, all the struggles are done. But it's like, no, that just taught me how to deal with the next wave. 

But for us from a professional standpoint, it also creates a wave of success. It creates the opportunity for more podcasts, more speaking engagements, more opportunities to amplify what we do from a professional standpoint. And so we know that there's times where I may not be able to stuff envelopes. Josh with our team is here helping us do that today. I know there's times that I may need somebody to help monitor emails or maybe a friend to help with my wife and kids to run around while Kyle and I are biking to Alabama. 

And that's probably another way that secret weapon has helped us, is that Ironman forces you to do a lot and that can sometimes come at the expense of the available time that we both have, but to know that everybody supports that because of what it does for us professionally and personally on the backend is something that we're extremely grateful to have those opportunities and support for.

Lindsey: You mentioned some speaking engagements there, so can you give us some highlights of some of the speaking opportunities that you guys have had? You've talked a little bit about the message that you're delivering on inclusivity, but what other messages are you delivering in these speaking engagements?

Brent: So we do all sorts of stuff. I mean, we were at a real estate investor conference last night. We do sales meetings, we do education...everything that you can imagine. We don't have a sweet spot. Every group is a very viable group for us. When we first started as speakers, Kyle and I would just get up there and say, I'm Brent and I pushed my brother and Kyle would say, and it was hard for me, and then everybody would stand up and clap. And what we realized is that that was just doing an Ironman by ourselves...that there was just this fleeting moment that was great that ended. 

We really wanted people to be able to take something more from it, so one of the things we really focus on is helping people find their finish. What does your finish line look like? Because that finish line of Ironman is what opens up all these opportunities as we just mentioned. So we want to encourage people to figure out what their finish line looks like. Is it professional? Is it a personal? What are the things you work for and how do you get there? We use the real examples of what we've been through. 

One of our famous examples that we love to talk about is in an Ironman event where we could barely move. We were so tired. I had been getting sick, and all we could focus on was these little traffic cones that were about five feet apart. We tell this story and the audience is listening to how Kyle is coaching me five feet at a time. And when you see the finish line photo, you think, wow, what amazing athletes. But it's the tip of the iceberg picture.

What you don't see is what's below the surface...how much work went into that. And so we really like to focus in on that to let people know like, hey, we've struggled. We know you're struggling. We get through this together. How do you get through it? Who is your team? Who is your secret weapon? And what does that finish line look like to you? Because what we hope is that it's not just this sixty minute keynote address that's uplifting and inspiring, but rather it's this watershed moment for you to say, my possible is so much more than this moment.

Lindsey: I love what you said right there: what does your finish line look like to you? I think there's so many of these life lessons that you can pull from Ironman and what you guys are doing and apply it to everyone's everyday life. 

I want to provide some additional information for our listeners if they want to find out more about the foundation and the incredible work that your team is doing. Where should we direct them to?

Kyle: The best way is to go to the website: KylePeaseFoundation.org. There are many ways on the website to learn more about our programming, as well as our social media, and that's the best way to get more eyes of the foundation.

Lindsey: Absolutely. So, as you both might be aware, Osmosis is an educational platform and we have many students and early career health professionals in our audience. I wanted to ask you for advice for them about meeting the challenges that they face in their own lives and how they should approach providing care for patients with some of these more rare conditions.

Brent: Kyle's going to give a much more technical answer, but I'm going to lead him because I want to give him a line that he likes to use in our speeches that I think applies to your question. One of the things Kyle will say in our talks is, “we all face obstacles, but do you allow those obstacles to define you or do you define them?” And what Kyle's really trying to help them focus on is that, hey, we all go through something. Kyle struggles are very visible. He sits in a wheelchair, but I might be going through something too as a brother living with a sibling with a disability or just my own personal struggles. And so I just love the way Kyle frames that because then as you start to think about it, you start to kind of separate yourself from just you and you start to think about the greater community that you may be serving or that you're existing in. I don't know if that led you good or not...

Kyle: Yeah, I think that every patient needs to be treated with respect. That if they have a disability, to make sure that they're being talked to as individual. Don’t just talk to their caregivers. As Brent says tackle every challenge head on and don't pass it. And be curious. Always be curious about what you are learning and we need to learn to share as well.  

Lindsey: Thank you so much for sharing all of that advice for our listeners. I really liked the ‘be curious’ part in particular. I think that's a great lesson for everyone. For my final question, what is next for you both?

Kyle: Well, we'll go back to Boston. We’re going to do the Boston Marathon together, but then we're going to focus on the Foundation, and really focus on every athlete and get them back to their wellbeing and help them see their next finish line and beyond.

Brent: I think the other thing that I would say -- especially in light of what you were asking of how do you deal with these challenges that you face -- I think so often we solve one problem and everybody says, okay, now onto the next great thing. But the reality is that there's this never ending cycle of challenges that you face. There's this never ending cycle that you solve one problem and then you do have to move to the next one. And so Kona was this very special, huge experience, but we don't always have to climb Mount Everest. We can still solve the little things that are happening here locally with our foundation. We can still focus on our relationships as brothers and go run in a local 5K that isn't on an island in Hawaii. So we're still racing, we're still enjoying everything we get to experience together as brothers, as friends, and as coworkers, and we're proud of what we get to do in all of those spaces.

Lindsey: Well, we are wishing you the very best in the Boston Marathon and looking forward to hearing about the incredible work that you guys are doing with the foundation. Thank you so much for being here today.

Brent: Thank you. 

Kyle: Thank you for sharing our story.

Lindsey: Thank you for joining us on this remarkable story of Kyle and Brent. Their journey reminds us that the greatest endurance isn't just physical, it's found in the way we give care and bring others along with us. For Kyle and Brent, the finish line is more than a personal victory. It's an open invitation for others to find their own path forward, to dream beyond limitations, to lift each other up and to believe that no matter the obstacle, everyone deserves the chance to discover what their own possible looks like. My hope is that Kyle and Brent's courage move us all to lift each other higher, break down the barriers that hold us back and keep pushing towards a world where every finish line is within reach for all. 

I'm Lindsey Smith. Thanks for checking out today's show. Remember to do your part, to raise the line and strengthen our healthcare systems. We're all in this together.