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Parkinson’s: An Athlete’s Journey is for athletes navigating Parkinson’s, the coaches and clinicians who train them, and anyone who wants real-world strategies for performance and longevity. Hosted by Eric Von Frohlich and Todd Vogt, the show focuses on tactical takeaways: how to train, recover, manage symptoms, and stay consistent when the rules keep changing. Expect honest conversations, tested routines, and guest experts who go deeper on what works.
TODD VOGT (00:31)
This is Todd and Eric here. We have Brendan Cusick and Patrick Morrissey from the Human Potential, right? I think I got that correctly. They were a four-man consisting Peter and Scott as well. two other teammates.
Patrick Morrissey (00:43)
Scott.
TODD VOGT (00:45)
They rowed from Monterey, California to Kauai over the span of what, 41 days, 42 for the challenge of it, as well as to raise awareness for Parkinson's disease and to raise money for Parkinson's research. And they raised an incredible $43 million for the Michael J. Fox Foundation in their support of Parkinson's research And finally, we should add that Patrick is,
Brendan Cusick (00:51)
you
TODD VOGT (01:07)
similar to Eric and I was diagnosed with a young onset Parkinson's disease a few years ago. don't know, think like five years ago or something like that is what you said. Yeah, so I want to hear about yeah, thanks for coming on guys.
Patrick Morrissey (01:14)
Yeah, a little over six now, not that we're counting.
Brendan Cusick (01:15)
Beer.
This is
Eric Von Frohlich (01:20)
It's kind of remarkable on the side note. Did you ever come across a guy named Matt Bennett? He was an ocean rower from England who did Canary Islands to Venezuela. And he was a guy who took on multiple challenges. The following year, he paddled the Yukon.
The year after that, ⁓ he walked across Mongolia with a self-supported pack. It took him 90 days. And he was one of my old students in New York at our roast studio. And we were fortunate enough to meet some remarkable athletes. So I'm excited to hear Patrick's story, because I'm sure that these guys are all cut from the same cloth.
Brendan Cusick (01:46)
I don't know what to do here.
Patrick Morrissey (02:04)
Great, Eric, I've not met him, but Ocean Rowing definitely is a pretty small group of people. maybe through the next channels or something, we'll cross paths. So that'll be cool. What he's done sounds incredible. And Brendan, if he gets on, he's definitely been involved in Ocean Rowing a little more than I have. And he may have met him or talked with him. ⁓
TODD VOGT (02:31)
This is fun.
Eric Von Frohlich (02:32)
How
did the team come about?
Patrick Morrissey (02:34)
this is Brendan's idea. He's the culprit in this whole thing. So what happened is Brendan and Scott Foreman, both of them have been long-term friends and seekers together. They were big-time climbers when they were earlier in their years.
and you know when they're I think it was for Scott's 50th birthday they ran rim to rim to rim great I got Brendan here Brendan's my neighbor so
TODD VOGT (03:09)
week.
Eric Von Frohlich (03:11)
Fantastic. Well, that's awfully convenient.
TODD VOGT (03:14)
All right,
Patrick Morrissey (03:15)
Yeah, yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (03:15)
Yeah, it's awesome having you guys in the same picture. Good job.
TODD VOGT (03:18)
Yeah.
were you and Scott collegiate rowers as well? Did you guys row in college or something like that?
Patrick Morrissey (03:23)
No, we were both mountain guides actually that's how we met was through mountain guiding and spending time in the mountains. I grew up on the north coast of California with a Pacific whitehall ocean rowing boat that we would fish from but neither one of us really had any sort of competitive rowing background. Yeah.
TODD VOGT (03:27)
Okay.
Eric Von Frohlich (03:49)
I'm sure Mountaineering
prepared you well though
Patrick Morrissey (03:53)
prepared us for the suffering and the adaptability to you know the weather conditions that come forth for sure. but so yeah I'll keep going on the how this started maybe I'll let Brendan when he catches his breath from running over like I said he lives two houses away and so
Eric Von Frohlich (04:11)
Yeah, how far is your house apart?
He got there pretty quickly, but he seems to be out of breath. So I'm wondering what's going on. Must be the altitude.
Patrick Morrissey (04:15)
It's about 200 yards away.
TODD VOGT (04:16)
Yeah, exactly.
Patrick Morrissey (04:21)
Yeah, that's true. He was sprinting over here, but yeah, it's kind of part of the story of us living so close and ⁓ you know, we work together and good friends, long-term friends, and that's how I kind of got involved. But whereas at Brendan is where I said this was your idea and you and Scott used to do, you know, adventure together, mountaineering, and you for Scott's birthday, you ran rim to rim to rim on Grand Canyon and that's
where I was when you walked through the door. So from that point, I'm gonna let him take over because this part is his story of how it all was created.
We ran the rim to rim to rim in the Grand Canyon for Scott's 50th birthday. And as we were slugging our way back up the final climb to the South Rim, I said, well, you know, this is what we did for your 50th. And so I'll pick something for my 50th. And he just looked at me and said, I'm all in. And it was about a year later that I had been following ocean rowing for a while, just as
You know an explorer and really appreciating different challenges like this I had heard a podcast actually with with another ocean rower and
about the history of it. And I thought, well, this is pretty interesting. And found out that there was gonna be an information call on World's Toughest Row and I pinged Scott and we were on the call and found out that the boat that a team had just completed from San Francisco to Oahu in a group of women that set a world record was gonna become available.
while we were on the call, Scott pings me and says, let's buy the boat. Without any further consideration of what this was gonna require or anything else. And sure enough, I we stayed on the call for another half hour and three months later, we're unloading our boat in the Bay Area. yeah. Yes, yeah, right from the beginning.
Eric Von Frohlich (06:27)
It's amazing. Nothing like going all in.
Patrick Morrissey (06:32)
So that was really how it all started. And then of course, that winter Scott reached out to our friend Pete. Pete and Scott had gone through medical school together and had been friends for a long time. Pete's a lifelong endurance athlete. He was a competitive swimmer and triathlete. Scott reached out to Pete and without even really asking any details, he just said yes. ⁓
And from there, we had the three of us and we were trying to find a four. And that was also about the same time. Most of these ocean rowing campaigns that are part of the World's Toughest Row do select a nonprofit to help raise money and awareness for.
And that was when we had the opportunity to partner with the Michael J. Fox Foundation. And that was when, at the time, Pat and I worked for the same company in different areas. And he had shared his diagnosis with me. And I had stopped him in the hallway one day and told him what we were up to. I just said, we'd love to have you involved.
Eric Von Frohlich (07:21)
.
Patrick Morrissey (07:42)
I don't know what that looks like, but you know, at this point it never occurred to me that Pat was going to want to row. ⁓
Eric Von Frohlich (07:49)
.
Patrick Morrissey (07:51)
But I said, you know, we're gonna be doing this for the Parkinson's community and for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. And I knew as a close friend, his involvement was really important to me. And so from there, Pat, what happened next? Yeah,
so if you don't mind, we'll just continue a little bit more. Are you guys good with, yes.
Eric Von Frohlich (08:12)
No, please do. This is absolutely fascinating.
TODD VOGT (08:12)
Sure. So one question,
one question before you continue. Where in the timeline? So the race was in June of 24. So where was this when you guys first started talking at this point? Give us the analogy. OK.
Patrick Morrissey (08:20)
Yeah, would have been February, March of 2023. So
about 14 months before we launched. Yeah. So that's when they, Brendan caught me in the hallway. I remember it to this day. And he said, oh, guess what we're up to. And was like, and explained to me and it's like.
TODD VOGT (08:30)
Okay, gotcha.
Patrick Morrissey (08:43)
I'm landlocked Colorado boy, mountain boy, rowing. I've never even been on an erg at this point. so...
TODD VOGT (08:51)
Bless your soul.
Patrick Morrissey (08:55)
You know, he asked me and I said, man, that would be great because I was pretty early in my diagnosis. We just kind of got out of COVID and I was diagnosed right before COVID. And then we jumped into COVID and kind of went into sequester. So there wasn't a lot of people that really knew besides my intern, you know, close friends and some people at work. So when he mentioned it, was like, man, this may be a great way I can get really involved with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and just be a spokesperson.
Eric Von Frohlich (09:10)
Thank .
Patrick Morrissey (09:25)
through this adventure, know, kind of way that I can start really coming to terms with it almost. And so that's kind of where it started. And so for about the next two months, I kind of sat on the background and watched Peter Scott and Brendan train and go out to, they were going to San Francisco, get the boat ready and started initial training on the boat.
Eric Von Frohlich (09:49)
Thank
Patrick Morrissey (09:52)
And that's when this little light bulb went off and said, well, maybe I could do this.
I remember it's my wife and I talk about this. She and I have a little different story on how this happened, but ⁓ how I remember it, kind of went in. Yeah, I don't know whose is right. It's probably hers more than mine. But I said I asked her if I could do this and she goes, yeah, you really didn't ask me. It was kind of like, yeah, exactly.
Eric Von Frohlich (10:08)
I'm sure yours is right.
TODD VOGT (10:20)
Yeah, and she's saying, you told her you're doing it. I'm guessing,
Eric Von Frohlich (10:24)
This is when you got
diagnosed with insanity, right?
Patrick Morrissey (10:27)
Yeah, you got it. Maybe that's the, you know, the about two and a half years after you're diagnosed, you just get this insanity diagnosis also.
Eric Von Frohlich (10:35)
Exactly.
Patrick Morrissey (10:37)
But ⁓ that's when I said, Deena, I think I'm going to do this and I'm going to give Brendan a call and see what the team thinks. And I gave him a call and brought it up and he was like, man, yeah, let's do this. Let's get the guys on the phone and see what everybody thinks. And so about the next two months, kind of didn't really say much to everybody because I wanted to really see if I could get my body could handle it, really the training.
TODD VOGT (11:04)
Sure, yeah, you can physically
Eric Von Frohlich (11:05)
Uh-huh.
Patrick Morrissey (11:06)
Yeah, Yeah, so I've had a lot of you know background in athletics and after college after wrestling,
TODD VOGT (11:06)
handle the training and whatnot. Yeah, exactly.
were a collegiate athlete. You were a wrestler, right? Division one wrestler, right? Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (11:20)
you know, I
did a lot of mountain biking, road biking, played hockey, snow skied, you know all the basics and especially mountain town stuff. But right when I got diagnosed with Parkinson's, as you know, exercises became, is,
the best thing for us, I feel. And so I took it very literal and started working out almost every day in some aspect, not just for fun. It became kind of a life. What's that?
Eric Von Frohlich (11:50)
It's a whole pass to go to the gym.
TODD VOGT (11:53)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (11:54)
It's a whole pass to go to the gym. I mean, it's the greatest excuse ever. I just tell my wife my Parkinson's is acting up. I have to go work out again.
Patrick Morrissey (11:56)
yeah, yeah, there's...
TODD VOGT (11:57)
Yeah.
Yeah, Eric and I have talked about this before, we're maybe blessed a little bit lucky in that we're both gym rats. it's like, The best thing we can do for our health is go to the gym? Great, we're already into going to the gym for hours a day. it fits with our lifestyle to a certain extent, you know what I mean?
Eric Von Frohlich (12:19)
Yeah,
but there's there's this huge chasm between that and then committing to a boat for 50 days and the mental aspects of that. I mean, the wrestling explains a lot. I totally can assume the mountaineering explains a lot from the little bit I've been exposed to it. but there is a mental aspect that you guys just decided to go figure it out and have the confidence to figure this this thing out.
TODD VOGT (12:25)
Totally, totally, yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (12:45)
committed to a boat is remarkable. I mean, I so much admiration for you guys. The way you did it is emblematic of who you are as people, and that's pretty cool.
TODD VOGT (12:59)
So what was your daily, what was like your typically typical week of training look like in preparation for the thing?
Patrick Morrissey (12:59)
I think.
Yeah, so we we worked ⁓ we worked with a coach and We had usually two to three days of strength training You know upper and and then ⁓ three and up to four days a week on the erg anywhere from
shorter one hour, you know, real specific high intensity work to steady state efforts on the weekends. And so we, the vast part of each month, you know, was, was focused there. And then once a month we would fly out to the boat was and we would do a longer training rub and
So we'd usually fly in on Friday, hit the water, and anywhere from 24, 48 hours plus on the water rowing consistently. And it's important to remember that on the ocean rowing boats, the cadence for rowing is two hours on, two hours off, 24 hours a day.
TODD VOGT (14:09)
Okay,
yeah, these are some of the things I was wondering as far as like the timing of sleep and who, how many people are rowing at a time? Is it just one person or two people?
Patrick Morrissey (14:18)
Two people rowing, we did train and then when we departed off the California coast, we can row up to three. So we rowed three on, one off. And that schedule is a little different that you're rowing for 90 minutes and you're off for 30 minutes. And we did that, for example, when we left the California coast, we did that for the first 24 hours. So you were only getting a 30 minute break. ⁓
TODD VOGT (14:28)
Okay.
Wow. Yeah, 30 minutes is a much time,
especially if like, if you have, if it takes you 10 minutes to, you know, use the bathroom in 10 minutes to make food, there's 20 minutes, boom, burned right there, you know?
Eric Von Frohlich (14:48)
Okay. Okay.
Patrick Morrissey (14:51)
Yeah.
So, and even, you know, with two hours off, especially during that first 10 days, as your body's adapting to
TODD VOGT (14:55)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (15:00)
this new level of life, you know, the fatigue was spectacular and you'd come off the oars, you know, you, you know, do your chores, get some food in you and then try to maximize as much sleep as you possibly could during that period. And during the day, it might be a little bit less because there's more to do.
And then at night, you know, you might get a little more sleep. For perspective, I went back and looked, I wore a Garmin watch for the entirety of the crossing.
TODD VOGT (15:28)
yeah,
Eric Von Frohlich (15:28)
I'm
Patrick Morrissey (15:29)
And during that 41 days, the longest sleep it recorded was one hour.
TODD VOGT (15:29)
thanks.
Eric Von Frohlich (15:37)
Sounds like my life.
TODD VOGT (15:38)
What are the chores you have to do? What are the chores you have to do? saying like swab the deck or whatever? I don't know, you know?
Patrick Morrissey (15:38)
Yeah, Eric, that's me last night.
Eric Von Frohlich (15:40)
It's the life of Parkinson's.
Good.
Patrick Morrissey (15:50)
Yeah, clean the deck, clean the solar panels. We had to make water. That was one of Path's main tasks. We had the desalinator to make water. We also had communications check-ins with the safety team for the World's Toughest Row. We had daily weather forecasts coming in. then we'd usually have a team meeting every morning to go through the weather forecast, what was coming, what we could anticipate. And...
TODD VOGT (15:54)
Okay.
Patrick Morrissey (16:13)
So those were some of the main tasks, you know, and then on top of keeping tabs on your own body. Hygiene, you know, all the basics to keep yourself healthy.
Eric Von Frohlich (16:24)
I would imagine you guys are on a
ketone-based diet at this point.
Patrick Morrissey (16:28)
You know what's interesting? No.
Actually, Scott was the only one who came into this with any sort of specialized diet and we were all kind of opportunivores and he's a low carb paleo diet person and we kind of hedge bets on when he was going to start eating carbs just in terms of needing that fuel. And it took about a day and a half before he was stealing everybody's Rice Krispie treats. But no, the diet was predominantly
we built snack packs of various bars, gels, know, just anything. And we tested all that through that year leading up to our row where we take different foods, see what worked for us, and then of course freeze-dried meals. And just for perspective, we had 55 days worth of food on board the four of us, which came out to about 1.2 million calories carried on that crossing.
Eric Von Frohlich (17:25)
Wow.
TODD VOGT (17:27)
Yeah,
so how many calories, now we're getting into the details of the actual event, like how many calories do think you're typically eating on daily basis?
Patrick Morrissey (17:34)
About four to five thousand calories I would say. Yeah, it didn't start off that way
Eric Von Frohlich (17:39)
So there was some weight loss involved in this.
Patrick Morrissey (17:43)
Yes. it varied. Scott probably didn't lose much weight at all just because of that. His body was so adapted to a low carbohydrate to increase in those carbohydrates. And then for Pete, he probably lost the most at about 20 pounds. I was probably in the middle, maybe 10, 15. And then Pat was probably about the same. About 10, 15. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (17:53)
Right.
Not bad
for 40 days,
Patrick Morrissey (18:08)
Yeah, no, it really isn't.
We even looked after each other to make sure everybody was eating. I mean, that was kind of the key between eating and being hydrated through the whole thing. You had to keep that energy up. so, you know, we had that, the two hours and let's say portion of that was eating, you know, you're sucking down, you know, whatever calories you possibly could. And it's kind of weird over the time, your taste buds kind of change because you get tired of certain things. And then you just start
Eric Von Frohlich (18:35)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (18:39)
with everybody, know, because everybody's got different snack packs and it's like, okay, what will you take for this, you know? yeah, it's, and it was really nice because the race...
Required us to have a certain amount of calories on the boat for each one of us based off a calculation And that's what I really liked about the world's toughest row is is very controlled Race where everything was documented they they had to look and Verify all of our food for each one of us before we put it on board You know literally by the pack by the day And you we didn't eat it by that day, but you know per
Eric Von Frohlich (18:57)
Mm-hmm.
Great.
Patrick Morrissey (19:19)
calorie pack so they could count it which was really nice you know those things ⁓ the details were really looked after so
Eric Von Frohlich (19:28)
Yeah, it seems
TODD VOGT (19:28)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (19:28)
like
you guys were well prepared, given you didn't have to worry about running out of food.
Patrick Morrissey (19:33)
No, yeah, at the end we were wanting to throw it overboard so we could lighten that boat and get there. yeah, that wasn't really part of the race rules.
Eric Von Frohlich (19:41)
Yeah, I bet.
TODD VOGT (19:48)
Are
there any foods you cannot eat any longer? Like any particular bars that you just had like 40, you had 150 whatever, Clif bars for example or something. is like, I've had enough of these for a lifetime, this is.
Patrick Morrissey (20:01)
I'd say for myself, you know, it took a while to get back to eating some of those things, you know, just and
TODD VOGT (20:07)
Okay. It's kind of like when we were like,
yeah, the backend, when we got back home too. Okay. Continue.
Patrick Morrissey (20:12)
Yeah,
probably the biggest thing is that most of the foods I brought were fairly bland. They didn't have a lot of spice. There was, you know, spice to it, but spicy in terms of, you being hot. And my my palate for spicy foods was greatly diminished. it probably took two months before I could eat anything with any substantial, you know, like a salsa or anything like that, because my taste buds had changed so much in that period of time.
TODD VOGT (20:40)
Interesting.
Patrick Morrissey (20:41)
Yeah for me like mac and cheese because like the free try freeze-dried mac and cheese it was such a bland food to start with that. I took a lot of that Thinking that that would be an easy one to you know get down and it's a hard one for me to eat right now
and it's hard to eat anyway. But the thing we was talking about spicy food, an interesting thought is my taste buds, I was talking about, I took a lot of bland stuff and by the end of the row, I was wanting some taste. there was some, people, Brendan had a certain freeze dried packet that he didn't like and it was like, ⁓ man, that has some real taste to it, maybe some little bit
of spice or something that's what I really liked you know maybe a spaghetti or something like Right at the end I was just craving that and I was just kind of over the bland foods for sure.
Eric Von Frohlich (21:39)
So food can
certainly be a challenge with something like that, what was the other mental challenges that popped up that maybe you weren't expecting?
TODD VOGT (21:49)
or physical challenges. I was thinking about your hands, example, with blisters and things like that. either physical or mental challenges, yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (21:50)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. You know, I mean, the
We talk a lot about the first week of the row because that's where you're really adapting to all of the different aspects. The other thing is that the ocean and conditions threw some pretty significant challenges at us. You know, in that first week, the big storm developed off the northwest of the U.S. and pushed a pretty big swell south. So we were the recipients of 30 to 40 foot swells and, you know, 30 knot wind. So it was big water right from the gun.
that had a lot of different implications. One is that we're my hands turned into hamburger in terms of getting blisters and everything And then it also came with seasickness that I personally hadn't experienced at all in any of our training rows.
And that had some implications, you know, in terms of, you know, are we going to be able to do this? And I'll let Pat speak to it a little bit more in a second. But the other piece from a mental capacity know, we did reach a point where, you know, Pat wasn't able to row very much because of the seasickness and Pete was down with seasickness. So Scott and we were rowing.
the vast majority from day three to day four. And I don't remember this, but my video log, apparently we rode, he and I rode for about 11 hours straight at one point on that third day. And, and, you know, there's two areas that physically get diminished and that's your hands and your butt. Cause you know, those are your two
TODD VOGT (23:15)
Wow.
Eric Von Frohlich (23:15)
Wow. .
TODD VOGT (23:25)
Yep, I was just thinking that.
Patrick Morrissey (23:26)
contact
TODD VOGT (23:27)
those are your points. Yeah, exactly. Those are your contact points. Exactly.
Patrick Morrissey (23:27)
points.
⁓ And then we reached a point where he and I were exhausted. We needed to take a break and we deployed, it's called a para anchor. It's a big parachute that goes out in the water, keeps the boat pointed into the wind and the waves.
and just allowed us to pause and get some rest in the middle of the night. And a big part of that was just because we were down to two being able to fully function and row during that period. But all that's, Pat, know, I you should add a little bit to that. Yeah, so that kind of... So Todd, you're, I think we'll understand this very well with your rowing.
So when we were training, when I rode my tremor and basically my symptoms would go away. We'd go on a two day row out in the bay outside of Ventura and I'd get done and these guys would go, man, we didn't see a symptom. And then a couple hours later things start riling back up. And so that was our perception of what was going to happen.
Eric Von Frohlich (24:32)
.
Patrick Morrissey (24:35)
You know that you know as long as I take stayed on my drugs and and everything was You know everything within reason that I was gonna be able to really keep up. Well you just
Murphy's law the first week it just was crazy as Brendan said and what happened is I got seasick I got seasick early in training but I was able to get over it through the training so I didn't quite know what was going to happen through the the the road but we got into this big big big swells that Brendan said it's just I mean with Brendan getting sick you know anybody would have got sick on something like that couldn't keep my meds down.
I couldn't keep my meds down, couldn't keep water down. And so over that first, the 12 hours there, really the second day, really put me behind. what I figured out after the row we weren't prepared for the stress.
that the ocean would bring, not the physical stress, the mental stress. And as you two know, what that does to us in Parkinson's. That is my biggest trigger, much more than a physical stress. that just started off on the wrong, started off wrong. And through the entire race, I was trying to catch up.
TODD VOGT (25:41)
Sure.
Eric Von Frohlich (25:46)
Okay.
Patrick Morrissey (26:00)
changing my meds, to try different routines and I would, know, everything would start working for a while and then I would...
overdo it, imagine that, you know, and then it'd be a setback and then I'd have to figure out how to do And then my drugs played a big role in it trying to figure out the right amount of drugs to take through because it's such a different environment than a day-to-day row and we had a system in place that worked just great, you know, out in the bay but...
TODD VOGT (26:27)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (26:34)
out in the big blue, man, it was a, every day brought something different that we would not have expected. I mean, I could almost say that every day. Something that is like, my gosh, what just happened there? So, but, so yeah, was, that was my struggle mentally is trying to keep without just cycling out there. As you guys know, when you're trying to figure something out, you're just get almost obsessed with it. And then worrying about
about not being able to keep up with the guys and perform. That was a tough one. And I think that's what I wanted to add on is that, I mean, the social experiment of being on a boat with just four people for this long a period of time, and we all knew each other very well going in and we knew, you know.
Wants to contribute. I mean, he's a driver and you know I mean his athletic background in terms of just that intense focus and to have that period of time where he just Couldn't and we wouldn't let him because we saw that it was better to be to rest and relax and recover than it was to be on the oars and You know, it was hard for us because we saw that how much you know mental
strength and drive he has and to kind of take that away a little bit.
You know, it was a really hard balance, but you know, over time, I think we all appreciated that. And it wasn't just Pat, it was all of us. know, I'd have periods where I needed to get off the oars and Pete would jump in for me and take over. And you know, we all needed those resets and we were also very cognizant of just seeing, you know, as a result of the stress and the physical diminishment that Pat was experiencing.
But incrementally, figuring out that recipe timing how much effort to put out, when to put it out, really helped with the overall success.
TODD VOGT (28:40)
Okay, I got another question for you. like the beginning was rough, like the first, you're out there for six weeks though, right? So at what point did you start to develop sort of a rhythm where you're able to you know, get, you know, make decent progress? At what point did you start to think like, okay, we're going to be able to finish this thing, you know,
Patrick Morrissey (28:57)
would say, know, about two weeks in, by day 15, we found a really good rhythm. And it actually is a period where it started to get almost a little bit like a day would just fly by. You just get on your routine and it just kind of started clicking. And we were really a lot more relaxed.
Eric Von Frohlich (29:14)
Okay.
Patrick Morrissey (29:19)
we were off the shelf, we were into more consistent waters. That's when it really, we found that routine. I would say that when we knew everything was clicking and that this was going to be successful, really, emotionally and mentally, I think it really hit me when we hit that halfway point
where we were going from and Pat...
talked about this and it really hits home is that we were, instead of rowing away from everyone, we are now rowing to them. And that mental shift just really like, yeah, we have a big goal and we're making it there now. So, you know, I think there was kind of two parts to that, but, ⁓ and then it was ticking down the miles instead of ticking up the miles.
TODD VOGT (30:10)
Sure. ⁓
Eric Von Frohlich (30:12)
That seems
to be a consistent theme in the little bit of ocean rowing that I've People in my friend Matt had 20 foot seas encapsized within a couple of days and lost gear and lost the cushions and almost drowned in the sleeping quarters. And there was quite a bit, you know, that kind of surprises you, I guess, right out of the gate. And then Chris Pitesh's
He was a stand up paddler who went across the Atlantic, talks about the mental aspects of what you guys go through and, you know, the mind games you have to play in order to just stay in the game. pretty remarkable. would imagine that the your two teammates are medical doctors or have medical backgrounds. So I'm sure that came into to quite a bit of use as
But what was the takeaway mentally from the early challenge that, what was the lessons that you didn't expect that kind of came out of that?
Patrick Morrissey (31:13)
think the first one was that night when we went on Para Anchor and Scott and I looked at each other and we were like, can we really do this? I mean, we were just getting really beat up by the ocean.
and trying to get that pair anchor out there. And at one point we looked at each other and kind of wondered. And we'd also learned that a boat had turned back. They had gotten rescued by the Coast Guard and another boat had capsized every, all the whole fleet was being impacted. And at that moment we realized that this was so much bigger than just the four of us rowing an ocean. And it was a catapult. Yes, we needed the rest.
Eric Von Frohlich (31:52)
Right.
Patrick Morrissey (31:56)
and we weren't going to just start rowing with that kind of awakened moment, but it was a big driver. And throughout the rest of the row, from the moment we pulled that pair anchor in, we didn't stop until we got to Hawaii. And throughout the whole period, we would receive messages of support through
Eric Von Frohlich (32:10)
Wow.
Patrick Morrissey (32:17)
the folks who were handling our social media and comments. And it was right when we needed it every time because we would either have learned that the forecast wasn't in our favor, know, we weren't getting the tailwinds and the swells that were forecasted. it just, and it was slowing down how long we anticipated the crossing to take.
And it just is so demoralizing when you receive that information. And then to turn around and get these uplifting messages of support of everybody who's following from home just gave us that extra kick. it was, that alone was so important and it made us realize how we were doing this for something that is so much bigger than any one of us individually.
TODD VOGT (32:53)
Awesome.
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (33:07)
And I
can tell you on a personal note, you know, I mean, I spent years climbing big mountains for selfish reasons, like just to see what I was capable of and to do this with Pat, you know, in a way that that just, ⁓ you know, supported him and also to do it more broadly for the community. That was a big piece for all of us in terms of our capacity to succeed.
Eric Von Frohlich (33:33)
It seems like you got an education
of what it's like to have Parkinson's.
Patrick Morrissey (33:37)
They got a
Eric Von Frohlich (33:39)
You get the shit kicked out
of you, you don't know what's gonna happen, you don't know what symptoms gonna pop up, you try to manage it the best you can and when you completely demoralize, someone comes in and gives you a little support and some love and appreciation and you bounce back and realize you're stronger than you thought you were.
Patrick Morrissey (33:56)
Well said, well said. Well said. Going along what I learned, just wanted, because it has to do with a little bit of that, if you don't mind. After, when Brendan said...
TODD VOGT (33:59)
Thanks. ⁓
Patrick Morrissey (34:10)
You know, they had their little discussion out out there, him and Scott, and they we all took a little rest and we all kind of got together and said, OK, we got to get back on the horse. You know, that was the time that it was like, OK, game on. You know, we're all we're all in and we all just started rowing, you know, even if we were sick, you know, it's just whatever you could do to get out there and keep rowing to keep let that other person get a little bit of sleep. You know, so from that
Eric Von Frohlich (34:24)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (34:40)
everybody just got up for every shift, unless there was a certain circumstance. but going out of that, my right side didn't work real well.
Eric Von Frohlich (34:50)
Mm
Patrick Morrissey (34:51)
in it because of my drugs
Eric Von Frohlich (34:52)
hmm.
Patrick Morrissey (34:53)
and I hadn't had time to deal with it. I hadn't had time to reset. So it was this this period of just going and you know and there was a time where my whole right side just stopped working. ⁓
Eric Von Frohlich (35:08)
Well.
Patrick Morrissey (35:10)
And so there was, I say a couple days, I don't know exactly how long it was, but it was more than a day up to three days. It all doesn't, it kind of blends in. That I rode with my left hand only, my left side, just to stay on the oars, to... ⁓
Eric Von Frohlich (35:25)
Wow.
TODD VOGT (35:26)
I mean, you're just doing a giant circle then.
Patrick Morrissey (35:28)
Yeah, exactly. No wonder why we got behind. You know, we were just, no. But what happened is finally the team, I woke up one morning, we usually had to a morning check in with all of us. And we all sat down and I wasn't prepared for this, but they said, Pat, you need to get off the oars. You have to take some time off. We want to give you some time off. Go in your cabin for as long as you need to reset.
Eric Von Frohlich (35:44)
.
TODD VOGT (35:56)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (35:57)
and
TODD VOGT (35:58)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (35:58)
I did not take it well. It was like there's no way you're gonna let me you know put this burden on
Eric Von Frohlich (36:04)
Yeah, well, it probably felt like they were questioning
your ability versus looking out for your best interest.
Patrick Morrissey (36:09)
Yes.
Right at first, that's how it came off is, you know, that I was holding them back and I didn't realize they were doing this for me and for the team, you know, and after we talked about it, but this is how this organically grew through our whole our whole development of this is is how this teamwork and how we all came together every time that something and it wasn't just always me, you know, my story happens to be kind of the highlight of it, but
Eric Von Frohlich (36:21)
Right.
Patrick Morrissey (36:40)
This was a great example of us working together and how it takes a team to get through things. And so what ended up happening, I end up, you know, I'd say they put me in timeout, you know, so I went in and I think I slept for like 18 hours or something or 12 hours straight. And I reset and Scott and I talked about the drugs. I increased my drug intake for a certain amount of days. And that was kind of the
Eric Von Frohlich (36:53)
You
Wow.
Patrick Morrissey (37:10)
start
of that real that everything was really pretty consistent until my cycle started happening again and that happened a little bit because I didn't have enough drugs to take the amount I needed for the whole race. I took 55 days worth but I doubled my dose for almost 14 days.
TODD VOGT (37:28)
Mmm. ⁓
Eric Von Frohlich (37:29)
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
TODD VOGT (37:37)
There
Patrick Morrissey (37:37)
and
TODD VOGT (37:37)
you go. Then you burn through it.
Patrick Morrissey (37:37)
we were going to be out there now 41 days instead of 35. And so all of sudden now I started having to dosing back and starting to watch how long, how many more days we had and it kept on increasing because we were just getting slower and Not just because of me, just environment and other things that were happening. But so, but that...
These guys, every time I needed help, there was no questions. like you said, had two doctors on board to help me through Mr. Powerhouse here, just rowing forever. ⁓ And...
Eric Von Frohlich (38:18)
Well, it's amazing
that, you you had seasoned athletes, which I'm sure made a big difference. You know, you guys have lived life and you've competed and you've trained and that certainly gives you a lot of confidence to pull through those tough moments. the having a purpose is unlike anything else. And knowing that they were pulling for a cause greater than themselves in their own individual glory
is obviously what gets you guys going and gets you to pull together. So it's a remarkable testament to see people who've actually done it as opposed to thought about it or just go through the mental exercise. So congratulations on that. It's a huge accomplishment.
Patrick Morrissey (39:02)
Thank you, Eric. Yeah, that was great. Great way to say it. To add to that and Brendan's comment about...
getting us to the end and the Parkinson's community and the support we got, I think is about two thirds the way there. We got emails from our social lead or texts, basically what Brandon would get, because we didn't have real good communication with everybody off and on through the whole race. But right at about two thirds there, Brandon talked about us getting over the goal line.
we learned that we're gonna be about a week later. Maybe it wasn't quite that, maybe somewhere in there, we got a little bit down. It's like, man, can we even handle another week out here? We're in a decent group, but we just kept on fighting currents and no wind and every day was something that happened that just seemed to slow us down.
Eric Von Frohlich (39:52)
Right.
Patrick Morrissey (40:03)
when you're just, it's crazy to say, but we're just going three knots. So going 2.7 knots for a week, yeah, you lose a day on three tenths of a knot. So it's like you're chasing tenths of knots. And ⁓ we got a dump of...
Eric Von Frohlich (40:09)
Yeah, but you go in 24 hours a day. You're going three nights.
Right.
Patrick Morrissey (40:25)
texts from the Parkinson's and family community following us. And that was an emotional day. We all took a little bit of time and just read those.
And that was when I really realized how incredible a movement we had behind us and people pushing us and following us and rooting for us. And that was one of the days that I really feel that really helped me get over the goal line saying, okay, yeah, you're talking about getting that, you know, everything happened in Parkinson's and then you get that one pat on the back and he was like, okay, I can do this. You know, you get through that and then the next round comes.
Eric Von Frohlich (41:08)
Yeah.
Patrick Morrissey (41:10)
and next symptom happens and it's just an, you know, a cycle but that community is, it was my reality of how incredible the Parkinson's community is and and...
Eric Von Frohlich (41:22)
I think for me
early on was the ability to reconnect with the community. I tried to lone wolf my experience and isolate and just kind of work through it and train and outwork the disease and thought I could do that on my own. And little did I realize until I stepped back into my jujitsu community and my pickleball community and started reaching out to people, never felt the support and the strength that I...
needed on those earlier days of my diagnosis. it's...
TODD VOGT (41:52)
Did you hear from the
man himself?
Patrick Morrissey (41:57)
Yeah, we were lucky enough to get a couple emails from him. We're lucky enough to meet him. We've met him many times so far, and we've just been blessed. He's just a wonderful Michael J. Fox, I'm assuming you were talking about. Yeah, exactly. We met him too out there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we talked to that guy too out there.
TODD VOGT (42:13)
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Eric Von Frohlich (42:14)
We're talking about God, but Michael J. Fox is great too. ⁓
TODD VOGT (42:19)
Yeah, I was wondering if that was one of the Michael's
if Michael J Fox was one of those messages you got at that point or if you met you You know this leads me to another question that happens who is waiting who is at the at the finish line waiting for you guys was Michael there or your family or anybody else or
Patrick Morrissey (42:35)
Yeah, had Michael wasn't there. We we had a message from him right when we hit the beach, but we had.
all of our families and then some folks from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, some of their top leadership was there. Debbie Brooks was Debbie Brooks and others as well they had brought the local Parkinson's community out for it. And that was probably one of the most profound moments was arriving on the shore and having the head of the local Parkinson's community and receiving a lei from from them.
and that was just really profound. So we had quite the entourage of folks. I mean there was a couple hundred people waiting for us when we rode onto the beach.
TODD VOGT (43:22)
another question.
Eric Von Frohlich (43:22)
like it's to gather a bunch of people to meet you in Hawaii than it would be Alaska or something on the other end of the spectrum.
Patrick Morrissey (43:27)
Yeah
TODD VOGT (43:31)
happened, why'd you feel when you get back? Like how was once you got, you know, what'd do when you first hit the shore
Patrick Morrissey (43:35)
yeah, mine was my wife and two daughters were there, and man, was, that is a...
when you get on that sand and walk up to them, you don't really realize important, and I wish it didn't take something like this to remind you how important those certain, well, everybody, your friends and especially your family are to you until you can't see time. But for me, my wife and kids,
immediate family and friends were definitely the best part of
almost, you know, it's just you finished and you did it and they're there ⁓ the foundation was in such a great support of us. So there was such a great entourage from them also. Yeah, definitely.
Eric Von Frohlich (44:29)
So how long was it before you started
planning your next adventure? You probably had a little bit of a letdown, I'm sure, because every post-event is bittersweet. ⁓ And you know, there's that, what's my purpose now when you go back to your normal life? But there's, ⁓ I'm sure it didn't last very long because you probably teed up for something else with the group you just went through it with.
Patrick Morrissey (44:54)
Yeah, you know, we haven't really planned anything out yet. I mean, you definitely had the post-Expedition Blues. There's no doubt about You know, it is a reflective period, you know, after you finish something that, you know, was two years of your life and then completing it. But, you know, more broadly speaking, we saw...
the influence and impact that our campaign has had for the Parkinson's community is possible for people living with Parkinson's and for the efforts behind the awareness and the fundraising. And that's been our bigger kind of expedition right now is to bring that forward and actually cultivate something out of that. And so that's been our biggest drive right now.
and that's been very exciting. on the Parkinson's side, it took me, well, we all took us some pretty significant time getting back into the social world. ⁓ Yeah, Brendan going back to work, you know, I'm lucky enough to be retired a couple of years, so I didn't have to, you know, go right back into an office. But I mentally and physically, it took a toll on my Parkinson's and
TODD VOGT (46:12)
Yeah, I was
Patrick Morrissey (46:14)
And
TODD VOGT (46:14)
wondering this exactly, the recovery post-event recovery.
Patrick Morrissey (46:18)
in some aspects.
It's been good and bad. You know, there was some downtime, right? For about the first three months trying to reset and get everything working and trying to understand if things were going to come back like they should. I was hoping they were because some things just weren't working real well. And but now everything is just almost, you know, the progression of the disease. You know, everybody says, did it slow things down? Did it do that? And I was like, you know what? I it's hard to answer because the
Eric Von Frohlich (46:28)
Yeah.
Right.
Patrick Morrissey (46:50)
progression of the disease. know, so I've taken more medicine now. I've got more symptoms. I've, you know, all the basics that happen with it. But I, maybe at the right afterwards, things were a little bit but now I'm back into exercising every day. You know, I am more tired, but that's relative to the world we live in, you know, and trying to manage our energy levels, et cetera. But,
Yeah, so, you know, we've all done adventures ourselves individually since then, nothing together besides what Brendan's saying is we've spent a whole bunch of time creating human powered potential is now for a nonprofit. And we're about ready to launch the second expedition in for HPP. so that's it's been a lot, as you guys know, putting something like that
Eric Von Frohlich (47:34)
Mm-hmm.
Patrick Morrissey (47:48)
together, getting the funding to do it, putting the infrastructure together. It's taken a lot of time and effort and it's been empowering but it's been a lot of work also. Especially for Brendan's been taking a little bit of the lead on the operational side of stuff.
TODD VOGT (48:05)
Let me dial
Eric Von Frohlich (48:05)
So.
TODD VOGT (48:06)
you
down just a little bit on this. So it sounds like you're another event. What are you thinking? You're same race or same event or different location? Or when's the time frame? What are you thinking here?
Patrick Morrissey (48:16)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. The boat will be involved. So we envision that we another team that would want to do something audacious, whether it's first with Parkinson's or any sort of big challenge, but over a longer period of time, like over a few weeks to a month.
Eric Von Frohlich (48:16)
You're selling the boat and going down another path, I bet.
Patrick Morrissey (48:41)
And we have a group of women, of whom is living with and they're all down in Florida. They row, they're rowers from the Orlando Rowing Club, and they are going to be rowing the Great American Loop. And if you're familiar with this, goes up the Eastern Seaboard, the Hudson River, the Great Lakes, and then down the Mississippi through the Gulf and back to Florida. It's 5,000 mile journey.
Eric Von Frohlich (49:07)
Wow.
Patrick Morrissey (49:08)
And as far as we know, it's never been rowed before. So they're going to be using American Spirit, our boat, and they're going to be launching around World Parkinson's Day in 2027. So about around April 11th of 2027, and it'll be a three month expedition. So.
Eric Von Frohlich (49:25)
It's pretty remarkable.
an amazing goal and what a great cause. Super exciting.
Patrick Morrissey (49:30)
Yeah, yeah,
it is. Yeah, so related to human powered potential, we're looking at bringing awareness for Parkinson's through longer adventure endurance campaigns ⁓ is our goal.
Eric Von Frohlich (49:45)
I need to give my wife a
hug goodbye. She's leaving for Denver. So give me one second. You guys keep chatting.
Patrick Morrissey (49:52)
Sounds great, Eric.
TODD VOGT (49:53)
Cool.
I want to come back to one thing. I need to mention this again. I mentioned this during the beginning. You guys raised $43 million assuming that was all for a Michael J. Fox Foundation
come about? mean, just through the, that's just like a staggering amount to raise for an event like this. So I mean, congratulations, obviously.
Patrick Morrissey (50:09)
Yeah.
Thank you. Yeah, thank you. It was it was lightning in a bottle in some regards and you know and it came about through you know a lot of different avenues of incredible support from the foundation. They saw a unique opportunity to leverage what we were doing into some campaigns throughout the summer.
Eric Von Frohlich (50:24)
.
Patrick Morrissey (50:31)
during our campaign. The other big component is that we were honored to have an anonymous three to one match that was unlimited. And having that match obviously garners a lot more support as anybody who knows and donates to charitable foundations, know, knowing your money goes further than what you contribute really makes a big difference. so collectively between our story and what we did and, you
TODD VOGT (50:39)
Wow.
Eric Von Frohlich (50:39)
Wow
Patrick Morrissey (51:00)
kind of the broader Parkinson's community, we were able to leverage and really create an amazing fundraising path for that campaign. And it was evolutionary. You we started off with a goal of 1.2 million and we thought that was daunting. And then it moved to 2.8 million for 2,800 miles. And we thought, my gosh, this is incredible. And we surpassed that even before we left on the row.
TODD VOGT (51:14)
Okay. Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (51:17)
Wow.
Patrick Morrissey (51:28)
before we left it was moved up to 28 million and then I just told the guys at that point I said look the Michael J Fox Foundation is amazing at fundraising we're here to row an ocean let's focus on what we can do tell our story bring the awareness where we can and let's row and just that collaboration the overall
messaging and everything just really amplified the ability to raise that kind of money.
TODD VOGT (51:57)
Yeah, I can just imagine like, you know, when you're starting fundraising, like, wow, we raised 20 grand, wow, we raised 100 grand, while we raise 500 grand, know, then we raised the million, we raised 10 million, you know, like, I can just think my own thought process would be along the way as these numbers sort of ticked off, you know.
Eric Von Frohlich (51:57)
Okay. you
Patrick Morrissey (52:15)
Yeah, yeah, it was pretty incredible. One of the amazing things was right up until we landed on the beach, the goal was had still
been 28 million and we were at 25 and with these campaigns, most of the money is raised during the actual row, for example, in this case and after.
Eric Von Frohlich (52:24)
you
Patrick Morrissey (52:33)
And it was my son 16 now was speaking to someone from the foundation and said, well, you know, clearly they're going to hit 28 million. We should go to 41 for the number of days they were at sea. And within days, that's what the new goal was. And we thought, oh my gosh, would everybody stop? This is too much. then. Yeah, exactly. Just.
Eric Von Frohlich (52:46)
Wow.
prophetic you should you should have out there longer boys
TODD VOGT (52:52)
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I thought you were gonna say
you would have internal dialogue. Okay, we have to hit this numeric, you know, this donation month. So we gotta do another loop around the island or whatever.
Patrick Morrissey (53:01)
Yeah,
Pat, start rolling left-handed. Let's just do circles. but we had one of the great stats that I hold on to is we had 26,000 different donors.
TODD VOGT (53:04)
Yeah, wait.
Patrick Morrissey (53:15)
which just to me, you know, that speaks for the community, you know, because there were some big numbers also, big donations, but most of them were small donations, you know, and it just reached a lot of people awareness to a lot of people that weren't aware, basically, there were new donations.
significant number of those for the foundation, which was one of the things that I really most empowered about is that outreach that we are all trying to do, bring the awareness to others to understand what the fight we're against right now.
TODD VOGT (54:00)
this was a race. So how many other boats were entered in the race and how did you guys do relative to the other teams as well? So I'm just curious, you know.
Patrick Morrissey (54:08)
Yeah, yeah, there was 11 boats that started.
Yeah, 11 boats have started and 10 finished and we were ninth. We were in the lead for the first week, four days, five, no, week, I think. And then ⁓ as things started settling out, the young guns, we saw them row faster. Yeah, we were any bit 15 years older than, you know, it's an early thirties sport.
But yeah, you know, I think the important
Eric Von Frohlich (54:44)
Yeah, but it served you guys well. Now, you've kind of redefined
what people can do with Parkinson's. So I kind of feel like this is, you we have to reevaluate or recalibrate, it looks like to be an athlete with Parkinson's. And, you know, I kind of appreciate that resetting because I think a lot of times people like to Here you have a diagnosis and they like to put you in a little box and label you and
you by it. done an amazing job of kind of shattering that and people needing to take everyone on their own individual abilities. And ⁓ that's something that's invaluable to the community because we need to be able to realize what we're capable of doing and the impact we can have on people, not just, label kind of slapped on us and be, you know, quietly sit in the corner.
Patrick Morrissey (55:37)
Well, you two amplify that also. Everything you two do and what you've achieved, you inspire me. So I think we all just kind of, I hope, inspire each other in keeping things and having these discussions. ⁓ I always talk about, put yourself around the right people, you can achieve anything. And the people on this call are the right people. So that's good stuff.
I do want to mention those other eight teams were awesome. They were great, incredible rowers, and there's nothing that for taking eighth place, they did everything and anything we did and above. So it's a great rowing community and it's a great event. So
TODD VOGT (56:31)
Yeah, can imagine there's a lot of camaraderie in the event just because everybody's going through the same grueling struggles, know, so. Oh, yeah, let me mention one other thing. speaking as like a flat water rower, like a lot of us within the, say, like the flat water row community look at the ocean rowers as these like, they're the oddballs, you know, because like, you know, our event, the Olympic and Paralympic distance is 2000 meters, you know, it's, you know, depending on the...
Patrick Morrissey (56:31)
accomplishments here.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, no, there definitely is.
TODD VOGT (56:54)
boat class can range from anywhere from five to eight minutes, you know? a lot of us, think, like scratch our heads at like, like what are you, what is going on? What are these people doing? You know? So, having said that, yeah, lot of, you know, mad respect for what you've done, so.
Patrick Morrissey (57:09)
well, it was...
Eric Von Frohlich (57:09)
quick technical
question. What how big is the spirit of America?
Patrick Morrissey (57:14)
American Spirit is 28 feet long and you know has a draft of about a foot you know without the rudder so doesn't sit very deep in the water and she's at the widest point maybe four feet wide
TODD VOGT (57:14)
Thank you.
Eric Von Frohlich (57:22)
Yeah.
And she has sleeping quarters, obviously.
Patrick Morrissey (57:31)
Yeah, one at each end at the bow and stern cabin. so the middle is all open where you're out on deck. And then, yeah, as we mentioned, there's three rowing spots. And ⁓ she has a pretty amazing story in history having two world records on the Atlantic and two on the Pacific. So ⁓ yeah, it was a...
Eric Von Frohlich (57:50)
Amazing. And soon to
break another one. Or to be a first thing another one.
Patrick Morrissey (57:55)
Mm-hmm, absolutely.
TODD VOGT (57:56)
How much is your bow
weight?
Patrick Morrissey (58:00)
Dry weight is think it's around 1,100 pounds.
TODD VOGT (58:03)
Okay, I want to just mention one thing. My racing single, my carbon fiber racing single is 27 feet long and it's like, it's what, 27 kilos? So it's like maybe, whatever, it's like less than that. So it's like 45 pounds, same length, except it's, know, 40 pounds at maximum, you know, so.
Patrick Morrissey (58:20)
Yeah, when we were fully loaded, were close to 2000 pounds ⁓ or more with food and people before we departed. yeah, it's pretty, pretty amazing.
TODD VOGT (58:24)
Yeah.
Eric Von Frohlich (58:32)
So is there anything that you didn't expect or anything that you want to share when you first purchased the boat and kind of had this idea in your head of what it was going to be about? Like I'm sure there had to be some surprises along the way. Anything that jumped out at you that we didn't discuss maybe?
Patrick Morrissey (58:50)
you know, the biggest thing was, is, you know, this started off as really just an idea for something to do for my 50th birthday. You know, I turned 50 mid ocean, you know, it's a heck of a thing to do for your And, you know, and the fact that it morphed from something fairly simple into something so unique and, and really profound in terms of the impact and, and
⁓ ability to grow into something so much bigger. you know that was probably the biggest thing and just the appreciation for
you taking something where you start off, you think it's simple, it's daunting, but simple in some regards. And then it becomes something so unique and so large. That was pretty amazing in terms of the changes from when we were just like, okay, let's buy the boat. All of a sudden, you know, we've got, you know, 26,000 individual people who have contributed to an amazing cause and, and, you know, all the magnitude of folks just behind was an
easing shift overall and to what it's becoming, know, how it's growing from that.
Eric Von Frohlich (1:00:01)
Well, it's incredibly inspiring. Go ahead, Patrick, sorry.
Patrick Morrissey (1:00:06)
No, just my, you know, growth with these guys, I really didn't expect how close we'd become as friends and as brothers. Along with you guys, both have eloquently discussed how this helps, how it helped me.
deal with Parkinson's personally and become a part of a community and acceptance to understand the disease and and you know ⁓ education is knowledge
you know, more we know, it seems to help me and I can, you know, get a little bit of that from everybody I talk with or talk to and it helps me day to day and I really didn't realize when I started this how much this row would help me and really understand the Parkinson's and be involved with so many great people in the community of Parkinson's.
Eric Von Frohlich (1:01:12)
Well, hopefully
it's a gift that gives you back everything you put into it for the rest of your life. It's amazing how a moment in time can define us in so many ways. So that's wonderful. Well, thank you so much, guys. It's been a fascinating story. We could spend hours talking about this. And hopefully we'll circle back again and continue as following you on your next adventures
Patrick Morrissey (1:01:22)
Yeah, about day.
Mm-hmm.
Eric Von Frohlich (1:01:37)
But thank you again for everything you've done for the community. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you to Todd for all of his inspiration. And I'm so impressed. I kind of feel like I have to go do something audacious and ⁓ challenging like buy a boat to get back in the game.