Amazing Race Host Phil Keoghan Talks Ride Across America, MS, and Social Change by Troy Rogers
There's
no question that after 14 seasons of The Amazing
race host Phil Keoghan has one of the best jobs
on television. But Phil is much more than just
the guy standing at the Amazing Race mat at the
end of each leg of CBS' hit reality competition.
Last year Phil Keoghan took to the airwaves with
his own show, No Opportunity Wasted, which helped
people get over their fears by offering lucky
selectees extreme situations to free themselves
of various life terrors. With No Opportunity Wasted
also turned into a best selling book, Phil Keoghan
is looking to make a difference by using his own
abilities and determination in Ride Across America
to show people that taking life into their own
hands is the best way to make the country a better
place.
Kicking off Saturday, March 28, and working with sponsor GNC, Ride Across America will see Keoghan average 100 miles per day up to a total of 3,500 miles, spanning 40 days with stops in over 30 different cities to raise awareness for the national M.S. Society, Bike M.S .and the M.S. movement at large. Ending May 9 in New York, a day before the season finale of The Amazing Race, Phil and Race Across America will be riding with former Amacing Race competitors, stopping by local GNC stores, be on-hand for open casting sessions for next season's The Amazing Race, and participating in various events across America for the M.S. Society.
A couple
of days prior to the start of Ride Across America,
presented by GNC, we shifted our focus from
entertainment to the goodwill that matters most
in life to talk to Phil Keoghan about how he'll
be handling his ride across America, what
type of bike he'll be using, and how Ride Across
America can help in the fight against Multiple
Sclerosis.
THE DEADBOLT: How do you think things like Ride Across America can move things forward toward a cure for M.S.?
PHIL KEOGHAN: Well, I think the underlying sort of theme to this whole ride is really "no opportunity wasted." And everything that’s happening really comes under this personal philosophy of mine, which is when you pool resources and you look at making a change in the world, it’s about using ingenuity and being resourceful. One of my favorite quotes is from Sir Ernest Rutherford, who said, ‘We didn’t have money so we had to think.’ And the last time I did this trip across America, Mitch and I organized the whole thing for under $5000 - 10 days, 10 cities, and 4,000 miles. It took my book from oblivion to number 35 on Amazon in 10 days and we created a lot of goodwill by doing the trip. And like I said, because of everybody joining forces - and I guess we had to think because we didn’t have a budget - we were able to do that whole trip for five grand and that included flying my dad out from New Zealand.
So
we’re taking this philosophy, if you like, and
this mindset of being resourceful and using
ingenuity to take this message out across the
country. And everybody is sort of looking towards
our government right now for the answers and
solutions to the challenges that we face, whether
it’s addressing a disease like M.S. or whether
it’s looking at unemployment or all of the different
things we face in this country and our government.
Our President has not got all of the answers.
We have the answers, as a people, as a people
with incredible brain power and some of the
most resourceful people on the planet. And this
country was founded on ingenuity. It was founded
on resourcefulness. I think that that’s a message
that I want to take out there on this ride,
including part of how we address a disease like
MS.
But to me, one of the most basic solutions
to our situation right now is getting on a bicycle.
It makes sense for your wallet [and] it makes
sense for your waistline. Forty percent of all
trips are under two miles in a vehicle. We have
a tremendous obesity problem in this country
and everybody has got into this mindset over
recent years of excess, of looking at all of
the things we want - ‘I want this. I want that.’
You know, we really need to get back to the
needs and essential needs. Why is it that in
1964 fifty percent of kids were biking to school
and in 2004 that figure dropped under four percent?
A lot of it has to do with the fact that there
are not safe paths for kids to bike to school
and parents are freaked out about their kids
biking to school.
But
a bicycle for a kid going to school makes a
lot of sense. So I want to talk to mayors and
say, ‘Hey, what are you doing to encourage more
people to commute on their bikes, and what are
you doing to help kids get on their bikes and
bike?’ It’s good for the environment, it’s good
for their waistline, and of course it’s good
for their wallet. Another one of my favorite
quotes from Kennedy when he said, ‘It’s not
about asking what your country can do for you,
but about what you can do for your country.’
I sort of want to take that message back out
and say, ‘Hey, everybody, lets try to think
about what we can all do collectively rather
than looking to everybody else to have the answers
for us.’ And I feel like this is one way that
I can maybe stir up a little attention for M.S.
and, at the same time, stir up a little attention
for bike riding and speak to mayors and acknowledge
the incredible work that people are already
doing and some of the ingenuity that people
already have.
I mean, we have people across this country who are already doing extraordinary things and I think we need a big mind shift to changing some of the sort of excess that we’ve been living with and get back to basics. And there’s nothing more basic than bicycle.
THE DEADBOLT: Which state do you think will be the hardest, geographically? I’m thinking it’s going to be Colorado.
KEOGHAN: [laughs] Yeah. I’m freaking out about the ride from Los Angeles to Denver right now, because when I first blocked out the route I had us going up the I-70 naively thinking that I could cut all the way across the Rockies that way and come in. When I started working with the map designer, he started adding on hundreds of miles because he said, 'You can not go on some of these roads you've got mapped out, it’s way too dangerous. The risk of a lot of snow.' My rest days got eaten up and I had a schedule that I had to adhere to, so I have no basic rest from here to Denver at all. I’m riding more than 100 miles a day, from here to Denver, and I’m going over a huge mountain pass. We’ve got passes over 10,000 feet. Some parts of the trek, where I’m literally heading out of my way, I’m going North instead of East and then I have to cut South again, making up very little ground over hundreds and hundreds of miles. That’s the part that really freaks me out the most.
The
other part that is freaking me out is that people
are e-mailing me over in Pennsylvania area and
saying, ‘Hey, don’t underestimate how difficult
it is over here with some of these rolling hills.’
So am I an extreme athlete? Am I anywhere near
the condition of some of these elite athletes
that ride across the country in a ridiculous
amount of time? Absolutely not! But for an average
guy who’s in his forties trying to tackle a
hundred miles a day over some really difficult
terrain, there’s no doubt that I wake up in
the middle of the night going, ‘I’m going to
do what?’
THE DEADBOLT: I’m a loyal Cannondale guy. What type of bike are you going to be on for the ride?
KEOGHAN: I’m using a Specialized Roubaix and I’ve been testing the bike for a while. What I love about it is that it’s incredibly forgiving for long rides and it was designed for the Roubaix Race. So it’s designed for bumps and for comfort and endurance, and it has these little lugs on the front fork and the back fork to soften the ride. So it kind of has a built in suspension. I absolutely adore this bike. I mean, they gave me a full-on fit. It’s called a BG fit, basically, where you know you fit the bike to your body rather than your body to the bike, and that’s made a huge difference. Before I had that fit I was getting all kinds of pains after being on a bike for six hours and ended up at the doctor, at one point, with some incredible chaffing problems. Now I’m with a better seat and better fit and the right bicycle. Now I feel pretty good.
There's
no question that after 14 seasons of The Amazing
race host Phil Keoghan has one of the best jobs
on television. But Phil is much more than just
the guy standing at the Amazing Race mat at the
end of each leg of CBS' hit reality competition.
Last year Phil Keoghan took to the airwaves with
his own show, No Opportunity Wasted, which helped
people get over their fears by offering lucky
selectees extreme situations to free themselves
of various life terrors. With No Opportunity Wasted
also turned into a best selling book, Phil Keoghan
is looking to make a difference by using his own
abilities and determination in Ride Across America
to show people that taking life into their own
hands is the best way to make the country a better
place.
A couple
of days prior to the start of Ride Across America,
presented by GNC, we shifted our focus from
entertainment to the goodwill that matters most
in life to talk to Phil Keoghan about how he'll
be handling his ride across America, what
type of bike he'll be using, and how Ride Across
America can help in the fight against Multiple
Sclerosis.
So
we’re taking this philosophy, if you like, and
this mindset of being resourceful and using
ingenuity to take this message out across the
country. And everybody is sort of looking towards
our government right now for the answers and
solutions to the challenges that we face, whether
it’s addressing a disease like M.S. or whether
it’s looking at unemployment or all of the different
things we face in this country and our government.
Our President has not got all of the answers.
We have the answers, as a people, as a people
with incredible brain power and some of the
most resourceful people on the planet. And this
country was founded on ingenuity. It was founded
on resourcefulness. I think that that’s a message
that I want to take out there on this ride,
including part of how we address a disease like
MS.
But
a bicycle for a kid going to school makes a
lot of sense. So I want to talk to mayors and
say, ‘Hey, what are you doing to encourage more
people to commute on their bikes, and what are
you doing to help kids get on their bikes and
bike?’ It’s good for the environment, it’s good
for their waistline, and of course it’s good
for their wallet. Another one of my favorite
quotes from Kennedy when he said, ‘It’s not
about asking what your country can do for you,
but about what you can do for your country.’
I sort of want to take that message back out
and say, ‘Hey, everybody, lets try to think
about what we can all do collectively rather
than looking to everybody else to have the answers
for us.’ And I feel like this is one way that
I can maybe stir up a little attention for M.S.
and, at the same time, stir up a little attention
for bike riding and speak to mayors and acknowledge
the incredible work that people are already
doing and some of the ingenuity that people
already have.
The
other part that is freaking me out is that people
are e-mailing me over in Pennsylvania area and
saying, ‘Hey, don’t underestimate how difficult
it is over here with some of these rolling hills.’
So am I an extreme athlete? Am I anywhere near
the condition of some of these elite athletes
that ride across the country in a ridiculous
amount of time? Absolutely not! But for an average
guy who’s in his forties trying to tackle a
hundred miles a day over some really difficult
terrain, there’s no doubt that I wake up in
the middle of the night going, ‘I’m going to
do what?’