Epic Bill

[Wind gusting] Bill: So the cutoff to the next is 40 miles.

And how many hours do you have?

Woman: So from 2:00 until 11:00.

19 hours.

And then you have from 11: 00 until 7:00 at night to get to the finish.

Man: And if it was up to me, I wouldn't recommend you go forward, but it's your call.

Bill: No, it's OK. All right.

Toes are overrated.

Yeah, well, you got blisters on every one of them.

I mean, I'll be honest with you, I wouldn't go on.

Bill: Oh, well.

OK. Well, there's not too much time.

You want to cut this and tape them really quick?

Woman: I'm not sure that's the right thing to do.

Bill, put your foot up here, will you, for a second?

OK. Bill: I gotta go, though.

They're going to kick me out.

[Indistinct chatter in building] Man: So, Bill, the race officials said they recommended that you not continue.

What's your response to that?

Well, I think I'm continuing.

Ha ha!

Good luck, Bill.

All right.

Thank you.

Woman: Got to keep going.

Bill, voice-over: I've always had this big desire to go further all the time.

Just more and more.

How far can I actually go?

TV host: This is a legend.

In a span of a few years, Bradley went from owning and losing a chain of video rental stores to becoming one of the world's great extreme endurance athletes.

This year alone, he ran 100 miles with a sled; biked 3,000 miles cross-country; completed the 135-mile run through Death Valley and a 199-mile relay solo.

Why, Bill?

I just have two talents-- I show up, and I'll suffer.

Woman: He broke the world record for the most consecutive rim-to-rim runs in the Grand Canyon.

Bill: It's me against my pain.

[Bill groans] Man: Look at that.

How much pain did you have to go through to make it?

Gary: How, Bill, will you become an extreme athlete?

Bill: You got to have issues for one thing.

And you always got to keep trying to one-up yourself.

See?

I always look at what's the most challenging thing.

And, you know, if Everest is 1A, Denali is 1B.

You go one step further until you're, you know, trying to run the world's toughest run, bike the world's toughest bike, and swim the world's toughest swim, you know?

Man: But can't you run, like, a 10K?

Bill: Let me tell you, when you go up that-- you go up Mount Whitney at the end-- that 11-mile climb-- I mean, there is no better feel in the world than finishing that race.

Bill: Arrowhead 135 is a unsupported race.

There's only three checkpoints along the 135-mile course, so you're out on the trail providing for yourself 12, 13, 14 hours in between checkpoints.

It's brutal conditions.

The cold can really get you.

So it takes a lot to get to that finish line.

That's why I do it.

This great physical challenge of going 135 miles in the dead of winter.

You feel alive because you're pushing the boundaries of what a human can do when you're in Arrowhead.

I want to be that guy--the guy crossing the finish line.

This will be my eighth attempt in a ten-year period.

I've had frostbite.

I've been lost on the trail.

I had my water freeze.

My skin's come off my feet.

You know, I've been in serious pain.

I've been walking out there delirious as hell, going backwards down the trail.

And Arrowhead is tough.

It's, in my opinion, the toughest running race in the world.

So I cashed all my 401(k) money in so I could train more for this race.

I want to finish this thing.

I'm here to finish.

[Knock on door] Hello, Billy B.

How are you?

Ha ha!

Great.

Hurley, you have a guest.

Oh, my gosh.

Hurley likes hanging out by the pool, too.

How are you?

Does he?

That's awesome.

I ran 20 miles a day before you got here.

11-minute pace, like 11:02.

Nice!

I know.

I'm coming around, man.

That's actually really good.

OK, what?

What?

Those are goals and... No, no.

But look at this.

Goals and affirmations.

Look how young you look there, Bill!

Leslie, voice-over: He's 59.

He'll be 60 in 2020.

He's ignored it.

He doesn't like us to even talk about his age.

He ignores that, although I don't always ignore that.

Leslie: My God.

Look at this.

This is my decade goals.

Oh, wow.

Decade goals.

Yup.

That's rowing the Atlantic Ocean.

That takes, like, three months.

Shut up.

Ha ha!

I'm gonna take that one down.

That's swimming the English Channel.

These two are coming off for sure.

That's biking from Alaska to South America.

There'd be a sore butt for that one.

It's like a year.

Is that how long it takes?

Or more.

I'll have to haul ass.

And then I got Everest here.

And then K2 is even-- Lookit.

K2's even more advanced.

I have that over there.

Of course, I probably should do Everest first.

Leslie: No.

That's Arrowhead there, man.

That's the finish line.

So I keep...looking at it.

So 2020 to 2030.

Yeah.

These are all the things you want to do... Yeah, that I'm going to do.

Oh, sorry.

Ha Ha!

Leslie: It wasn't until he was 46 years old did he get into all these extreme sports.

So something happened much later in his life that switched in him to be doing what he's doing today.

Bill: I opened a video store at 23 years old.

By 28, I was a self-made millionaire.

By 40, I was worth $5 million, and by 45, the whole video industry had collapsed and I was bankrupt.

I go, Screw being the video man.

Now I'm an ultrarunner.

Woman: Bradley Video was Bill's video store that he ran from the eighties through the early 2000s.

Dr. Frankenstein: In the name of God... Michelle: Everyone knew it as the store where they shot "Scream" in 1996.

Everybody's a suspect!

Michelle: I am even in the scene!

[Button clicks] We were famous.

It was a really special time.

And then years later, when the bankruptcy happened, it was just so painful for everybody but especially Bill.

Bill: When your brain is running stress-- like, you have fear of lack of money, you don't have ideas.

You're not being creative.

You can't think.

And so doing the meditating, I've just gotten a little bit calmer and calmer and calmer, and then all of a sudden you start seeing, you know, opportunities out there, which, when I was younger, I saw all the time.

You know, but then after the bankruptcy, you just don't see anything, you know.

You can't see the opportunities.

It's blanked out.

[Speaks indistinctly] Bill, voice-over: So my plan is over a 5-1/2-week period, I'm going to show up at International Falls, Minnesota, the coldest spot in the continental U.S., and I'm gonna run 135 miles pulling that 40-pound sled, and then, like, 11 days later, I'm going to start climbing Mount Aconcagua down in Argentina, which is the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere-- 22,800 feet.

Leslie: When I first told people that Bill would be doing these types of races, they thought he was on a dog sled and the dogs pulling him.

But then they realized, No, he's going to be pulling the sled.

It's going to get heavier with just a few more things.

Leslie, voice-over: Bill told me he was going to sign up for these races.

At the time, you know, it was like, "Bill, can you handle all those?"

Bill said, "Oh, sure I can," which seemed a little bit crazy.

[Thunder, wind gusting] Man: They used to have a thermometer here, but they could never keep that thermometer working.

Ha ha!

You know, I don't know.

It's a really, really tough place to make a living.

It's, uh, shrinking.

Fudd: You want to go in the Arrowhead.

If you're from down South, well, then you got a whole bunch of learning about cold weather and how to survive in cold weather.

Once your core temperature gets down, if you go into hypothermia, you're done.

You're going to die.

Of course, if they find you there, you know, you're going to be all froze up.

I mean, cut your hands off, cut your feet off.

I mean, it's not funny.

It's not--it's not-- it's a very serious matter up here.

More than real, more than real.

Bill comes here, and he stays quite a long time.

I'm very interested in what makes a guy, uh-- I kind of study that.

I like to study that.

Like, what would make a guy do that?

[Wind blowing] Leslie: So Bill got there seven weeks early for this race.

I mean, nobody else does that.

He's completely isolated out there.

I've celebrated 56 Christmases with Bill, and this last one was the very first one that we ever missed together.

All three of Bill's kids were coming to Christmas, which doesn't happen all the time.

So everybody was here for this Christmas and Bill was missing.

He was missed.

He was definitely missed on this one.

And he says he will never miss the holidays again.

It was super hard on him, so he said he would never miss the holidays again, and I don't believe that for a second.

If it's your calling, that is your calling, right?

So that's your calling first.

Everything else is second, and that's his mind-set.

Bill: There's no place else I'd rather be.

I just want to really give it a really good effort.

I would really, really like to finish.

[Chuckles] Like, more than anybody could believe.

I train so hard for this.

You just can't quit.

And that's why even if I don't make it, I'll be back again-- guaranteed.

Ha ha!-- until they kick me out of this place.

Ha ha.

I think that's about it.

[Chuckles] Man: So, Bill, this sled I made for you, it's kind of like a sleeper sled.

What I did when I built this is I have, uh, ash, so it's really light but very strong... Bill, voice-over: Mike grew up in International Falls.

He's an outdoorsman.

He really knows it.

Mike, voice-over: Bill's been kind of an icon of the race.

He demonstrates the spirit of never giving up, and so I respect that.

Tough times don't last, but tough people do.

I think it's going to be a pretty special moment to cross that line.

One Doggie power.

This is the year, bud.

Hey.

Uh!

This is the year.

Give me a hug, man.

I really appreciate all your help... Oh, you bet.

like, a lot.

Yeah.

I know.

Yeah.

No, just--just execute.

OK. Yup.

Good luck.

[Indistinct chatter] Man: This is our 15th year of Arrowhead.

We've had 260 foot finishers, and overall we're at 57%.

We'd like to get below 50, so please do your part to help us out.

[Laughter] This is one of the 50 hardest races on Earth, so there's nobody babysitting you on this race.

You are on your own and expected to be on your own.

Racers have to carry mandatory survival gear, which includes a -20 below sleeping bag, a bivy sack, stove, fuel, calories, fire starters, safety equipment.

Bill: Those are some serious badass racers, and everybody's nervous and everybody's quiet because it's going to be so cold at the Arrowhead.

Ken: Please don't call for help unless it's an emergency.

We have amazing snowmobile volunteers... Ken, voice-over: It's just one small mistake, one wrong pair of socks, one piece of exposed skin.

Especially in these temperatures, those can freeze in ten minutes.

Broadcaster: Here's what you need to know about the polar vortex.

And temperatures are going to stay below zero.

Could be -50, -60, and even -70, so that is an extreme... Leslie: It was on every news channel that here they're getting hit with this once-in-a-century type of coldness that's happening in this area.

And at this point, I am completely freaked out.

Bill doesn't belong up there.

Bill, voice-over: We're out there at midnight, trying out different socks, different gloves, you know, running up and down the trail, trying to figure out what combo we're going to wear.

Bill: OK.

I think that's pretty good.

We were getting ready to do battle with the polar vortex and Arrowhead at the same time.

We're going to go out there and get in the arena, no matter how cold it got.

OK, so I got to do a shake tomorrow.

Lunch meat, sled.

GPS watch is on.

Water and thermoses.

Mike's going to come at 6:30.

We're going to probably head for it.

I was thinking 5: 00.

That's when I'll get up.

Bill: If you focus on how dangerous things are, which I don't think any of us who do these things do, you're not going to do it.

You don't want to be thinking about how cold it is out there, how dangerous it is.

I'm just trying to quiet my mind before I go out on the course.

I'm right at my athletic peak, and I'm going to kick ass out here.

Mike: You got everything you need in the sled.

You're organized?

Bill: Yeah.

Step by step.

OK. [Device beeps] This will have to go, yeah, just like this.

Well, we'll know where to-- we'll know where to find you.

I think I got a new sponsor!

Ha ha!

Mike: You got everything?

Yeah.

All right.

Let's rock.

[Laughter] Seven years of [bleep].

No more [bleep].

Woman: No more [bleep].

Get it done.

[Indistinct chatter] [Fireworks] [Cheering] Ken: All right, runners.

We're leaving the house.

[Cheering] [Spectators hitting cowbells and cheering] Man: Look at 'em fly.

So my goal is to get into Gateway and not be totally trashed.

So I'm pacing myself, I think, pretty good.

Bill, voice-over: Once I get moving out on the trail, then I feel comfortable.

You don't think about regular life at all.

Can't afford to.

I have to stay in the moment.

Man: Zoom in here.

Yeah, right there.

There's Bill.

Bill is doing pretty well.

He is 11--12 miles in, and he's keeping a steady pace.

3.1, 3.4, 3.3, 3.7, so... he's doing pretty good, right where he wants to be.

Hey, is my tracker working?

Man: Yeah.

Oh, good.

Kyle: He's about halfway to Gateway.

Start to here.

Got to make it to Gateway, then down to Fortune Bay.

Just following that tracker, you could tell he was at a slower pace than he wanted to be.

Doing everything in his power to get to that checkpoint.

Kyle: Waiting on Bill.

It'll be a little while before he gets here.

Parker just came through.

So the front of the pack is through, but Bill is back there.

He's about 30, almost 31 miles into the race.

We're here for him.

Bill: In Arrowhead, you have to have the mental toughness that no obstacles are going to stop you.

And I definitely saw that in my dad when he started his electrical business from scratch.

He had $5,000 in the bank at 40 years old and four kids, and he still went for it, even though everybody thought he was crazy.

Nothing was going to stop him from succeeding.

And that's all that counted, was that he had the belief in himself that he could do it.

And I had the belief in myself that I could do it, and that's why I started the video stores.

Leslie: We didn't know at the time.

We found that out later, but Bill went and got a bunch of credit cards and borrowed out on all of these credit cards because he'd rather bet on himself and see what he could do on something like that.

Bill: Then we got, like, 15 credit cards back, so that's how we opened it up.

Woman: The best new movie availability.

Singers: Bradley Video, you'll have a good time Guaranteed!

Leslie: He got to be one of the largest independents in the nation.

So at that point, everybody's looking up to you, and you're going to these conventions, and "Bill Bradley," "Bill Bradley!"

When you build a successful business, there's a lot of ego and who you are wrapped up inside of that.

Bill: We were marketing fools, man.

We were so high volume, we would anchor strip centers.

We would bring a thousand people through in a four-hour period.

We were just rocking.

We were on top.

Woman: As a child, my dad would send me into competitors' stores to, like, see what they were doing.

Um, ha ha!

He always wanted to be better.

And, you know, they had their free popcorn, they had lights, they had toys for the kids.

You know, it's like more of an experience than just going to the video store.

Michelle: We were on the top of the video industry and thought everything was going great until it just wasn't.

Bill: In 2005, we were all starting to have trouble, man, because Netflix was out.

The video business was starting to come down.

First we did-- we tried to do a reorg.

And one of my banks came in, and I had several hundred thousand dollars in their bank.

And, you know, as soon as I said I was filing for the reorg, they took the money.

They just came in and scooped it all out.

I didn't even know you could do that.

Jamie: Kids used to follow me around at school and be like, "Well, what happened to the video stores?"

Or, like, "So what does that mean?"

His identity of being successful was also in my identity of, like, growing up and then having it stripped, like, in a day.

It was traumatic for everyone.

Michelle: Feeling like a failure is just so devastating, but feeling like a failure and your community and your friends and everybody see it is heartbreaking.

How do you get past that?

Bill: A $10-million chain going bankrupt isn't like you're going bankrupt over your credit cards or something.

I mean, there's people want-- you know, they're coming after you.

And it really screwed my mind up, just royally screwed my mind up.

Leslie: Bill would ask me, "Is it going to be OK?"

And I'd tell him, "Yeah, it's going to be OK, Bill.

"It's going to be OK. You got to believe in that.

It's going to be OK." He had wrapped his identity, his ability to feel confident, ability to keep his wife all wrapped up in money.

So when all of that got taken away, what did he have left?

He had himself.

Bill: You've gone 35 miles and never seen a soul.

You're going to lose your mind a little bit.

[Man cheers] Man: There it is.

Kyle: He was the last racer to make it before the cutoff, but he was completely drained.

That would be called cutting it close.

Ha ha!

That was a hell of a push, Bill.

Yeah.

How's your feet feel?

Let's put that right there, huh?

They're OK. Hey, Ken... Mike: You know where you could-- So the answer-- [Button clicks] Oh, I know.

I'm going to move really slow.

That's the problem.

Yup.

All right.

[Footsteps] Ken: Check in?

Man: Yeah.

Get some--get some warm air going.

Man: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We got it going.

[Shuts door] Oh, that's a little wet.

Ooh, you're just soaking wet, buddy.

Ooh.

You're just soaking wet.

Can't believe how wet I got.

You're just soaking wet.

I can't believe that.

Ohh.

Huh.

I was worried everybody was going to be mad at me.

No, no, no.

Ha ha!

I was!

I was like, "Damn."

I just don't like to quit.

But probably dying.

Quit or die?

Probably would choose quit.

Ha ha!

I'm depressed.

Heh.

I really wanted it bad, you know?

So I'm bummed.

I will be.

I'm going to sleep for a few days... [Chuckles] and then, yeah, I'll be ready.

All right.

Getting ready to pick up the little pooch.

Ha ha.

I haven't seen him in 7 weeks.

He hasn't seen me in 7 weeks.

It's going to be fun.

[Barking] Who's your papa?

Who's your papa?

Who's your papa?

Good little boy.

[Chuckling] How you doing, little boy?

How you doing, little boy?

How you doing?

You doing good?

Anybody want to go to the park?

Anybody?

Anybody want to go to the park?

[Barking] I need a volunteer to go to the park with me.

Who will go to the park with your pet dog?

[Continues barking] Bill: Leslie told me to do something my last wife didn't want me to do, and she really didn't want me going farther than Ironman triathlons.

She said, "Bill, you've been talking about doing "a 50-mile run for a long time.

"You know, it's probably the perfect one, but it's tomorrow," right?

I wasn't going to do it because I'd never done one before and my confidence is, like, zero.

But, I mean, literally, I was so desperate, I freaking got up at, like, 3:00 in the morning, and I ran that damn 50 miles like my frickin' life depended on it, because it did.

And after I finished that race, I stood up taller and I was able to look people in the eyes and said, "Man, I'm an ultrarunner now."

Leslie: That was the first kind of getting out of his low that had happened to him, but still had no idea that would lead to where he is today.

[Chuckles] Man: So beginning Badwater.

Spectators: 3, 2, 1.

Whoo!

Bill: Badwater, I had heard, is the world's toughest race, and that is why I got into it.

Go.

[Spectators clapping] You go across the desert.

The lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.

You run 135 miles there, and then you go up Mount Whitney, which is the highest point in the continental U.S. Leslie: You have to walk along the white line, because if you walk along the pavement, your shoes will melt down.

Who comes up with that stuff, right?

It's not me.

Man: Looks like the needle's still moving.

Bill: The heat gets up around at 130 degrees.

It's like running in a frickin' oven.

"You just want to finish.

You just want to finish.

You just want to finish."

Constantly putting that in my head.

I would try to run, and then I couldn't bear the pain anymore, so I would stop.

Every step I would take felt like butcher knives were going into my quads.

I mean, it was off-the-charts excruciating pain.

And then finally, I mean, I just go-- I go, "I gotta run!"

So I took my mind and I pushed all the pain out.

I mean, I just took it, and I just made it really small over here in a corner.

And all of a sudden, the pain went numb.

When I made it to the frickin' top, I felt so much better about myself.

Heh.

I had a win.

[Cheering] Jamie: You know, at his core, he's an excessive personality type.

And so when he gets into one thing, he gets into it tremendously.

[Person cheering] Bill: What does it take to break you?

When will you be broken mentally?

And that's a question that I ask myself.

And that's why I'm out here.

You've used so much of your mind just to get you here, and you still got 80 miles to go.

You know why I'm going to finish this?

Because this is going to end in, like, two days.

And the frickin'-- that bankruptcy went on for a year and a half.

This pain is nothing compared to that.

Jamie: My dad finished the double Badwater, and then he wanted to up that challenge again.

He ran a quadruple Badwater.

He ran back and forth for three weeks and even summited Mount Whitney twice.

He was the fourth person to ever do that and the oldest person to ever finish.

Bill: During my life, I was afraid of everything-- of speaking in public, being super shy, you know, and rough water, deep water.

Through my life, I have attacked every fear there is.

Fears are not going to limit me.

I was in that bay every weekend.

I was getting at least one 4-hour swim on the weekend-- no wetsuit--all year.

I'm talking December.

Doesn't matter.

You have to keep doing it.

Man: And this is a dangerous place to swim.

In fact, this... Bill: I learned to swim so good that I swam 20 miles in the English Channel, no wetsuit, no breaks.

But the catch is it's 21.

That was my fifth attempt.

When you break through a big fear, you no longer have the limits there that they're encompassing you with.

All I thought is, "What's next?

What's harder?

What's bigger?"

The first year I went up to Denali, I got sick on the mountain.

Then it got horrendous to where I had, like, bronchitis up there and I couldn't hardly breathe.

And I had to come down.

And when I came down, I fell in an area-- it's called, like, the no fall zone.

You know, if you go about another 50 yards, you're, like, over a 2,000-foot cliff.

So I'm kicking my feet into the side.

I'm using my ice ax in one hand and punching my fist in, and I climbed out.

And I had frostbite on two of my fingers.

And, you know, it's just--it's a usual trip to Denali.

Ha ha!

Leslie: Why would Bill want to do that?

I have no idea why Bill would ever want to do something like that.

You know, why go out into that freezing cold, risk your life?

This is absolutely crazy.

Um, and when you're talking to Bill, he's totally into it.

This is--this camp is where I was stuck.

We were snowed in on this camp for nine days.

Eight feet of snow came down.

We couldn't move.

My first attempt up there, two people died when I was on the mountain.

Leslie: You think, What is going to take him out?

Is, like, he going to fall in a crevasse at some point?

Is that--is that going to be the end to Bill?

You don't know where that end will be.

You know, he's full of life.

You know, we want him to just stay that way, full of life.

You know.

Bill: I feel like anything's possible.

This wall makes me feel like anything's possible.

I put anything up here on my wall.

You keep putting all this positive stuff in your head, and it becomes who you are.

Leslie: He's putting in hours and hours of telling himself that he's got to do these and he's going to finish it, mentally making it so strong.

It's hard to say "You can't," you know?

Jamie: There is some self-fulfillment that comes with completing these races and pushing the limits.

But, you know, I want him to feel like he's worth it without having to do these things.

Bill: I got my ass kicked about three times by Denali, and then I went to Aconcagua.

I go, "Well, this will be a little bit easier mountain because it doesn't have all the snow."

But it is taller than Denali, so it's 22,800 feet versus 20,000 feet for Denali.

People die up there because of the altitude.

I'll probably think about death when I'm dead.

It's, you know, law of attraction.

If you think about death, you're going to die.

Man: Last camp.

Last camp.

Tomorrow, big day.

Bill, voice-over: Think about living and loving life and being healthy.

And it's about as alive as you can feel is when you're in these extreme events or on a big, giant mountain or in a freezing cold race.

You're really living life.

[Chuckles] This thing kicked my butt something awful, man.

It just got to where I couldn't move anymore.

We're, uh, 600 feet from the summit, but I can't-- It's up there somewheres, like, two hours away.

Bill, voice-over: We took a break, and I could not stand back up because of the altitude.

And I remember then the group left.

Vladimir, who's the lead guide- she was on the radio with him.

He says, "Hey, you guys got to go down.

You're not going to make it."

I'm frickin' bummed, man.

[Panting] I can't even move, though.

I can't even move up.

It's going to be tough to come down.

I'm bummed.

These [bleep] events are kicking my ass.

I don't know what-- I don't know what my strategy is.

These things are [bleep] really, really hard--excuse, that word-- but really, really, really hard.

You watch these guys coming up right here.

You can see them.

I was like, one step.

I mean... Leslie: If I could stop Bill from doing these, I would.

I would.

But I'd want my same brother back, so I wouldn't want him being somebody he's not.

Bill: This will be my second attempt at climbing Aconcagua, and I'm ready for it.

Sean: I remember when I was younger, going to support Bill at some of his races, thinking what he was doing was really awesome.

I honestly never thought that someday down the line, I'd be with him, even going up part of the mountain that he's climbing.

Let's practice our summit chop.

In the arena.

There's our summit right there, right?

[Indistinct conversation] Bill: When we got dropped off, our first hike in was about four hours to Camp Confluencia.

[Bird chirping] Bill: So I met Vladimir down there the first time I went down.

Vladimir is like my Mike in Minnesota.

[Cheering] Bill, voice-over: He's summited that mountain 25 times.

He's the king of that mountain.

Whoo!

Sean: I knew going in that I did not know how difficult it was going to be.

[Man shouting commands, indistinct] Bill: Well, I was gonna film that, but I'd be, like, running for my life.

Ha ha ha!

[Whistling] Victory salute.

Oh.

Whoo!

Whoo!

All right.

All right.

We're a little tired on that one.

Yeah.

Sean, voice-over: We took a break at a rock, and we had probably been hiking for 6 or 7 hours, and I'm desperately hoping that we're getting fairly close to base camp.

And Vladimir tells us that we've reached the halfway point.

I think that might have been the most devastating part of the trip, where I'm like, "Oh, so this is what this stuff is all about."

Sean: The trip was supposed to take eight hours, and it took us 12.

Bill: Entering base camp.

Whoo-whoo.

That was a long day.

Really long.

Really proud of my team.

Summit train!

All: Whoo-whoo!

Sean, voice-over: I remember when we got to-- got past that 12-hour day.

'Cause I didn't even want to go walk over to where we had to sleep.

You ready?

I'm gonna have to get out of here.

Yeah.

Let's... Sean, voice-over: Yeah.

I did not want to move once we got up to that log.

I mean, it was just a little bit further, which was that much harder.

Being there with Bill in this effort to do something that is very difficult, you enter a different mind-set, where it's "I can keep going, I can keep doing this."

OK. One more.

One more.

Ha ha!

Good job.

Great job, Kyle.

Yup.

Whoo-hoo!

One more summit train.

Summit train.

Bill and others: Whoo-whoo!

[Laughing] Sean, voice-over: It's kind of an adrenaline rush a little bit just knowing that I was able to do what I did.

[Indistinct conversation] Bill: OK. Sean, voice-over: I do think that suffering can help, putting yourself down in that low point and getting through the low point and achieving something out of it definitely makes you feel better after, and it gives you a better perspective on your life when you get back.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: King of the guides right there.

King of the guides taking me to the summit on the summit train.

Whoo-whoo!

Vladimir: Come on, Bill.

Whoo-hoo!

[Wind blowing] Vladimir: Hard, really hard to go through, isn't it, Bill?

Bill: All right.

So I'm up at camp 2, something like 5,400 meters, like 16,000-something feet.

But it was a hell of a day, man.

It was a battle.

5 1/2 hours, wind, freezing temperatures, and finally, like, puking my guts out all over the trail, you know?

And I just want you to remember that, that when you go after your dream, man, it's not frickin' easy.

It's frickin' hard, man.

I had a hard time making it all the way up here today.

It was a tough climb today.

Anyway, eye of the tiger, or as they say around here, ojo de tigre.

[Wind blowing] We're getting up there.

Bill: 9 to 10.

Just remember that.

9 to 10 hours to the top.

That's nothing.

That's nothing.

I've been going up hills for about 4 1/2 hours almost, and I knew I was in trouble over there.

I knew I'd been realizing trouble, like, for the last hour.

I just don't have the strength.

We're good.

The next part over here is really steep, and I'm not going to be able to get up that.

Vladi did a great job.

He got me 45 more minutes up the trail.

Bill, voice-over: When I was up on Aconcagua and I knew I wasn't going to make it, I knew I needed to embrace the failures.

Life kicks the [bleep] out of us, and it makes us who we are.

It's made me who I am because I had those fears, I had those challenges, I had, ohh, you know, a lot of tough times in life, and I never let 'em frickin' stop me, ever.

Bill: You need courage, and courage is a muscle.

You build it up slowly by doing things that are out of your comfort zone.

And that's how you have a good life.

Come on.

[Chuckling] Coming down.

I'll get emotional.

Yeah.

It's hard work up there.

Yeah, I know.

No.

Good work, man... Leslie: As long as you're failing, you're trying, right?

And then that's the unhealthy way of failing is you never try.

You just talk about it and you never try.

And then that dream gets away from you in life, right?

Or whatever it is--a goal or anything that you wanted.

Um, so just getting in there and trying.

See?

I agree with Bill.

Ha ha!

On that part, he's right.

[Cheering] Jamie: When I do think about, like, all my successes that I've had, I really think about my childhood at the core and how he really pushed me at those ages to dream big and keep pushing forward.

[Cheering] Bill: Les!

Leslie, voice-over: You're in my head.

So when I'm out there and I have a problem, it's like, All you got to do is take one step.

Can I do that?

Yep.

Right?

I can do one more?

Yep.

Keep going.

We got to go on that journey with him, and showing people and telling people how to do this, so you can do a lot more than you think you can.

And it's important for him for us to watch him going.

Bill: He's a good boy.

Leslie: Your daddy leaving you again?

All right.

OK. Good reminiscing.

Thanks for coming by.

Oh, I love you, Bill.

I love you too, man.

Thank you.

And, you know, if you need to call in the middle of the night, call in the middle of the night.

Thank you, Les.

Good luck... All right.

Appreciate you coming by.

I love you, too.

OK. Bye, Bill.

Bye, little Hurley.

Bye, Hurley.

Man: No wind right now.

So I'll be waiting there for you.

Gonna do the best I can do, and the best I can do is good enough.

Exactly.

That's exactly-- either--Doesn't matter how it shakes out, because we know you're going to do that.

It's, uh... Yeah.

Yeah.

That--it doesn't matter.

Thank you.

Yeah.

That means a lot to me, man.

Yeah.

Bill, voice-over: That's who you want in your corner in life.

You want people who care that much about you, you know.

If you have passion, people will help you, man.

And you'll find your One Doggie, too.

Ha ha!

Kurt Russell, as Herb Brooks: You were meant to be here tonight.

This is your time.

Bill: Arrowhead's a humongous fight.

Failures is part of it.

Man: OK. Breathe in.

[Bill inhaling] And breathe in and hold.

I think it's clear to me now, if you're afraid to fail, you're not going to do anything great, you know?

So you got to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and you're going to fail when you go out of your comfort zone, and I accepted it.

I know that it's not the end of the world if I don't finish, you know.

It's just that I'm-- you know, I'm in the arena, man, and I'm, like, fighting the fight, like, every frickin' day, you know?

Every day I'm fighting the fight.

Bill: Perfect, perfect.

[Indistinct chatter] Bill, voice-over: People are out here, who, whether I make it or don't make it, they respect you for being in the arena.

Let's get this done.

Let's get it!

Get it done, man.

Do it.

Hey!

Hey!

Good luck, Karla.

[Laughing] Good lucky.

[Kiss] Parker: Big Bill Bradley.

Eye of the tiger.

Bill, voice-over: I'm proud that I'm willing to keep getting out there.

And that's kind of the lesson I want to get out to people, is, you know, you just try, man.

If you win, it's frickin' great.

And if you don't win, it's frickin' great because you're in the frickin' arena and you're living, whatever your arena is.

It's great.

Ha ha!

[Fireworks exploding, cowbells clanging] [Wind blowing]