Veteran Voices: SITREP: Episode 51 

Operation Warrior Fit with Jonathan Milkovich 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (0:00 - 0:22) 

The VA told me three years ago I wouldn't be able to do anything really ever again. I wouldn't be able to run, I wouldn't be able to be the athlete that I was before I joined the military. But this is the first race that I had finished after the military. 

Across the line, my mom is there and I'm like ugly sobbing and she's like, oh crap, you know, what did Jonathan do? Like, I just looked at her and I was like, mom, I did it. 

[Tom Faust] (0:26 - 1:08) 

Welcome to Veteran Voices, Sitrep, with your hosts, Tom and Chris Faust. Welcome to Veteran Voices. I am your co-host, Tom Faust. 

I'm here with my son, Chris. And today we have with us Jonathan Milkovich. And you represent, I should have looked this up ahead of time, OWF, Operation, no, please tell me what it is. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (1:09 - 1:10) 

Operation Warrior Fit. 

[Tom Faust] (1:10 - 1:50) 

Thank you. I knew that, it just wasn't right in front of me all of a sudden. Okay, great. 

Representing Operation Warrior Fit. And one of the things I wanted to start with here is that you're preparing for a 700-mile run across North Carolina in 17 days. So 700 miles in 17 days, that's a lot of miles. 

That makes me tired just thinking about it. I know, I know, that's crazy. But anyway, I'm sorry. 

You're telling us a little about yourself and how you got, you know, how you got to this point and then you can start to tell us about the run. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (1:51 - 4:34) 

Yeah, absolutely. So I did eight years altogether in the Army. I spent five years active duty, spent some time at Fort Bragg, then transitioned up to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with the 501st Airborne Infantry. 

What I like to tell everybody, and it kind of plays into the story as we continue to talk about it, I'm not the smallest dude on the block. I always like to say I hit the ground like a bag of rocks every time I jumped, which ultimately led to a bunch of different bruises, injuries, the whole nine when it comes to that. But yeah, so I did my five years active, got out, went into the National Guard for another three years with the Wyoming National Guard. 

And that is at the point that really started, you know, Operation Warrior Fit was my transition from active duty back into the civilian side of things, but still had, you know, that National Guard time. So it was a nice little reprieve from college, the college world, because I was going back to school and really allowed for me to have a baby step kind of transition, just get my feet wet and realize, you know, this is what the real world's going to be like and better be prepared for it. And so we spent some time with that. 

And like I said, that's when Operation Warrior Fit came true, because I had gone through some stuff, losing one of my guys right before I got out of service and didn't deal with it while I was in service, dealt with it after. And a bunch of my buddies and I decided to all go to the same school. And it was great because I had that support network that, you know, every veteran loves, every first responder loves. 

But we also love the local honky tonk every Friday and Saturday night. And I hadn't dealt with everything that had gone on. And it ultimately took my wife coming to me, basically telling me, hey, you know, you keep going down this path of not dealing with stuff. 

We're not going to work out or, you know, be the person that I know you are. Go get the help that you need. Let's focus on physical wellness, because then that ultimately leads to mental wellness. 

And we did that, slowly realized, hey, it's really expensive to go do these different events in these different races. And I wasn't working, obviously being in school full time, and we were living off of her income. And that's what really starts the story there of Operation Warrior Fit. 

And ultimately, we'll dive into it a little bit more. But we're trying to eliminate the financial barrier that veterans and first responders, active duty National Guard members face with trying to be active, trying to be involved in the community. And we're kind of starting the first step of getting them involved in that community by circling something that's on their calendar. 

[Tom Faust] (4:35 - 4:48) 

So what makes a person decide to introduce into the nonprofit, introduce a nonprofit into the world by running 700 miles in 17 days? What's that all about? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (4:49 - 7:09) 

I don't really know. So I follow a lot of these different guys. And I'm in a really weird friend group now of some people that have like run across different states that I'm like relying on, their advice for what we're trying to do here in September. 

It was one of those things that I 100% believe that our organization will be something that helps people ultimately, because veterans and first responders, we love competitiveness. We love having that date on a calendar, being held accountable for something, even if you don't necessarily want to do it. Just having that accountability, having that mission, that purpose in your life is something that I believe 100% is going to make some impact here in the next few years. 

And part of it is, if you'd asked me three years ago, never in a million years thought I would have a nonprofit. I always wanted to own a private business, find something new and cool and do it that way. And you ask me now and it's the only thing that I want to do is have a nonprofit like the one that we're trying to build here. 

And so to show one, my dedication to the belief that I have in the organization and then two, my stubbornness of opening my mouth to way too many important possible partners and then being like, you're doing that now. It's kind of where this all came from. I jokingly said about this time last year, oh yeah, I'm gonna run across the state of North Carolina to a couple people that ultimately could support us in a massive way. 

And they're like, yep, that's what you're doing. And so I've loved running. I've always been a runner. 

Hated it in the military when somebody was telling me, hey, you need to go do this workout. But afterwards found the love again for it. And ultimately I'm excited. 

I tell everybody it scares the crap out of me too though. It's not normal. So I've got an amazing team behind me, an amazing coach that's helping me get ready for this. 

And so it's something that as much as I can be eased on how difficult it's going to be, we're there. And so now really I just want it to start happening and I'll start having some fun on the course. 

[Chris Faust] (7:10 - 7:24) 

So curiosity, since you said it was your wife that said you need to shape up or ship out basically, what did she say when the 700 miles thing stopped being an idea and became an actual plan? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (7:27 - 9:03) 

She's fully on board. She supports my craziness. She obviously knows who she married. 

And I have an idea and I like to run with it. And I think initially she almost thought it was like, oh, ha ha, Jonathan's gonna do this. That's awesome. 

And it slowly turned into, all right, Fleet Feet is behind us now. And we've got the vehicle wrap being ordered. And we've got this sponsor that's donating stuff. 

And we've got this sponsor. And these people are booking their airplane tickets to come in that I served with to meet us in Charlotte for a day. And I think about the 90 day mark is when she realized like, oh crap, he's doing this. 

Even though I had been training for it for the last about eight months now, there was never a moment that she ever was like, oh, I didn't think you were going to do it. But I think for the longest time, she kind of sat on the fence a little bit of, is it going to happen? Is it not going to happen? 

Because like I said, I've always wanted to own a business of some sort. And so I've always thrown these crazy ideas out. We'll research them. 

And then ultimately they didn't really become something that I wanted to do, or it was something that I saw would be possible. But now, yeah, we are very close to it happening. And I'm very lucky because she's completely on board. 

She's going to be part of our media team that's out there documenting the whole thing with us. She knows what she signed up for, I think, when she married me. 

[Tom Faust] (9:05 - 9:19) 

Do you think that any part of you believes that people might, you know, really take you seriously with Operation Warrior Fit if they see you suffer through this 700-mile run, like 41 miles a day or whatever that is? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (9:21 - 10:25) 

I think it's an organization that no matter what, people understand what we're trying to do. But I want to show my dedication towards it for people to really understand. We want to do everything possible to get every single person that's interested, active and healthy and in a community that supports them. 

Whether you are a fun run, one-mile kind of person, or you're on the extreme that I'm on and you want to do ultra marathons, or you're a triathlete that's trying it for the first time. And ultimately, you end up doing Ironmans. We want to support everyone on the spectrum. 

And I just want to show anybody and everybody, the VA told me three years ago, I wouldn't be able to do anything really ever again. I wouldn't be able to run. I wouldn't be able to do, be the athlete that I was before I joined the military. 

And, you know, now we're gearing up this, I mean, this week alone, I put in right at 70 miles of training over like 13 or 14 hours. And so we're like, we're gearing up and we're at the point now that we're not too far out. 

[Chris Faust] (10:26 - 10:49) 

So not everybody, you know, just, you know, gets out of the military and is like, Hey, I'm going to, you know, decide to run 700 miles and create a nonprofit and do all this stuff here. There has to be something that kind of did that here. So I'm looking at the notes here and you described leaving the military as the worst decision you ever made that you will never regret. 

What did you kind of mean by that? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (10:51 - 12:30) 

So with that, it was more of my whole military experience was where's that was where that came from. And it's the worst decision I ever made because my body got beaten up, you know, and I have some of the issues that I had from losing some of my, or losing my buddy. But it's the best decision that I ever made because I do have all of my other buddies that, you know, we still will still, I'll be driving home one day and I'm like, Oh, I need to give this person a call. 

And the next thing you know, it's a three hour phone call. And, you know, it's like we had been together the whole time. And then also it goes to, so I'm a full time MBA student, but completed my undergrad last year, fully online, like petitioned the school to take, you know, additional credits so I could finish it quicker. 

And the military, it, it gave me that ability to build a purpose around something that I want to do. And something that, you know, you know, a big part of my story is I failed out of college the first time around, and that's what brought me into the military. And, and so now, you know, I'm graduating top of my class at Syracuse University for my undergrad, and I see it going the same direction now for my master's. 

And I'm looking to start a second, a second master's program come the spring of this coming year. And so it's, it's something I have, I believe, more pride in myself. And, and so that's what really and truly makes it a, it's something I won't regret. 

You know, there, there are big parts of it that I do regret, but they're the biggest part of it, though, is it's made me the person that I am today. And I'm proud of the person that I am today. 

[Tom Faust] (12:32 - 12:51) 

You mentioned, I just want to kind of back up to this. You mentioned that the VA told you, you know, that you wouldn't be able to basically do any of this, that your physical injuries had affected you. So how did these injuries affect the way that you saw yourself after service and maybe give you that motivation to get through it? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (12:53 - 15:17) 

One of the, I believed them. I mean, that's the easiest way to put it. I believed every second of what they told me. 

And, and one of the realizations that I had, and it was right around the same time, you know, that my wife came to me and told me to straighten my butt out a little bit to, you know, make sure we stay together. I looked in my medicine cabinet, and it looked like my 70-year-old grandfathers. Like, it was something that I was 27 at the time and was on muscle relaxers. 

And I had lidocaine patches for every little ache. And, you know, I was on different medicines to help with sleeping and then headaches and everything. And I believed them. 

And I think that was ultimately the biggest issue was I believed them over myself. And I'm a very, I like to think I'm a very confident person. My mother tells me she used to worry about my confidence growing up, and now she's questions why she ever did. 

But I, I believe in myself a lot. And I know I'm my best, my best ally when it comes to anything and supporting myself. But to hear somebody say that when I was transitioning out, and I think it was kind of a pile of everything that was going on, you know, I was starting to deal with my buddies loss a little bit more. 

I had lost that community. I was in a town that I only knew a couple of people, and they're still some of my best friends. But I didn't have 50 dudes at any point that I could call and rely on. 

If I needed something, if my wife needed something, I always get like, not uncomfortable leaving. But I, you know, I'm fortunate where we live now, my parents are right down the way. But when we lived in several other places, since I've gotten out, and I travel, it's like, oh, is my wife going to be okay? 

And, and for whatever reason, and it's obvious, it was that my buddies were there. But when I was doing some like training deployments, I'd be gone for three months. And there was never a worry in my head of like, is my wife going to be okay? 

Because it's like, there's 50 other dudes that I can call and be like, hey, go make sure my wife's good. You know, if there was anything that ever came up. And so yeah, I ultimately, it was because I believed them. 

And I think that was the first mistake that I made, because I'm the kind of person that you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to do it tenfold, no matter what happens. 

[Chris Faust] (15:18 - 15:34) 

So feel free to talk as much or as little as you want here. But you've mentioned a couple of times on how you lost a buddy. What do you remember about learning that one of your buddies had passed? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (15:36 - 19:15) 

So it was during COVID, right, kind of at the start a couple months into it. And we had known that there was some other issues that were going on at the time. And, you know, we were trying to make sure we could do everything as possible. 

And, you know, ultimately, they have to be as willing as possible as well to get every possible service short of, you know, having the cops show up and handle it kind of thing. And so we, the one thing that I remember, and it's something that I think I've talked about before is waking up and I had like 100 and something missed calls on my phone from all of my different guys. And because it had happened early in the night in the barracks. 

So everybody had heard it. And there was a part of me for a while that at the time I was still, I think we were coming out of the winter time in Alaska. Yeah, we were coming out of it starting like the longer summers. 

So we had a lot more light. And a lot of times during the first couple of months, I would use just like some sleeping pills just to help me pass out earlier to keep that schedule as much as possible while my body got used to the transitioning of the seasons. And one of the things that I still remember to this day is obviously taking some of the sleeping pills and waking up to those calls. 

Like my phone, I didn't hear my phone ring. I didn't hear it buzz or anything like that while I was sleeping. And that is always shaken me a little bit, kind of bothered me because I always said for the longest time, I would always be the person that you could call no matter what. 

And part of it, I never had a missed phone call from my guy, but I had it from all my other guys that had experienced this or heard something happen in the barracks. And I'm somebody that I stay busy when something like that happens. Something my wife tells me in every interview or podcast episode, I'm still working on it, is I'm not the best with talking about emotions, dealing with emotions. 

I'm more of the very nowadays toxic, box it up, put it away and deal with it at a later date. And so I did that. And I did that by taking care of my guys and making sure they were comprehending what was going on and they were handling it and they didn't need the resources that were possibly needed in that moment. 

And so I kept telling myself I was good. I was good for a while. And as we've discussed, it ultimately came out later down the way. 

There's not much of that time period that I remember. It's something that I've tried to think through. And it was from the moment, from the time it happened to his funeral, it was like four or five days, I believe. 

And that whole time is very grainy in my head. I've been told it's partly because it just, it's your brain getting rid of the bad stuff. But it's one of those I remember, making sure my dudes were good. 

And looking back, I never took a moment was like, hey, am I good? I was staying busy as possible to make sure everyone else was good. And in the moment, that's great. 

But it ultimately impacted me a year or so down the way. 

[Tom Faust] (19:16 - 19:44) 

Yeah. So it's interesting that you bring up that you were wondering if you were good. A little bit of self-reflection needing to go on there, I guess. 

Did you think that you had felt any responsibility or anything with this happening? Or was it completely separated from you? I'm just wondering if there was something that you had to work through in your grieving about whether there's anything more you could have done. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (19:46 - 21:45) 

Oh, every single day or every single time that I think about it. It wasn't necessarily something that I was like, it happened because of me. But it was more of like, was there something that I missed that I could have done more for? 

Or was there something that he said to me and I took it as like a joke or something like that. And it was actually a lot more serious than I could have ever thought it would be. But part of what I have to tell myself, and it's more just the facts of the situation, is we were raising the red flags that we needed. 

And we were making sure that people were aware of different things that were happening. He wasn't himself. He was locked in his barracks room a lot more than normal. 

He wasn't out with the guys doing stuff on a Friday night or something. And what made it even more difficult was it was during COVID. Everything was locked down. 

And so, for the longest time, 8 a.m. rolled around. Hey, you good? I'm good. 

Cool. Sweet. I'll check in later today. 

We weren't in garrison. We weren't doing stuff in the offices. We weren't doing field ops. 

And we had to rely on phone calls. And you can only pick up so much over the phone. And so, that added to what I was questioning about. 

Could I have done more? Could I have caught something else? It was a whole bunch of terrible different situations that led to this. 

And every single day, I still wish he was with us. But it happened. And unfortunately, we have to learn from it. 

And all we can do is move forward and try to stop the next person that thinks that that's the ultimate decision that they need to make. 

[Tom Faust] (21:46 - 22:11) 

Okay. I think we should shift into a little more about the direction you're moving and how you got there. Apparently, for a while, you had a drinking problem. 

You mentioned the issues that your wife was giving you the ultimatum for. So, when did the drinking stop being social and become a way to numb yourself? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (22:13 - 24:42) 

I don't even know if I would say it was something that numbed the problem. That's when the problems came out. My lips were more relaxed when I talked about stuff. 

And then I would go home and be by myself or be with my wife if she was still awake or something and think about that stuff. And I think it almost was the opposite for me. I went to class. 

I came home Monday through Friday and would have a fifth or something like that. It was Friday and Saturday night. I loved the good old honky tonk. 

We put a couple of my buddies and I in the country bar and we'll shut it down and have a great night. But then it was that I've drank so much and now I'm home alone or home with my wife or she's asleep or something. And I just started thinking. 

And it was one of those circular thought processes of like, well, this happened. Could I have done this? Well, if I did this, what would happen? 

And is that the answer? And I could go into a spiral and then it turned into panic attacks. And then I'm sitting on the back porch just sobbing uncontrollably for no reason. 

And I'm very fortunate that my wife understood that that wasn't me. That's not the person that I am. I'm not somebody that wants to be upset, wants to be having these issues. 

And she knew I needed help, but she knew I was stubborn enough to not say anything. And I think that was a big part of her ultimatum. I do fully believe if I continued down the way that I was going that she probably, her and I still probably wouldn't be together to this day. 

But I do also think it was her knowing I need more of an extreme to flip that switch. And that was the extreme that she offered was, hey, if you want you and I together, you need to go and figure this out before it becomes something worse. Because like I said, sober me was fine. 

Whether it was doing the toxic thing of putting it in a box and locking it down or if it was, I could just comprehend it a lot better. I was good when I wasn't drinking, but then I would drink and we would get into those circular thought processes that never really ended well. 

[Chris Faust] (24:43 - 25:01) 

So a lot of the times there are certain things where we just get really defensive when somebody brings something up to us. When your wife had basically said her spiel to you, were you angry with her before you became grateful for her pushing you in that direction? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (25:02 - 26:43) 

No, I knew it was coming. I knew this wasn't the first time that, I mean, it was happening regularly, but this wasn't the first time that this was happening. And I could tell that she realized something was off. 

And I think she knew that I wanted to figure it out, but I didn't know how to ask for that help. And one of the things, I talk about it a lot, is with how mental health has lost a lot of its stigma around you have to be the toughest guy in the world and you can't talk about your mental health. I tell people it's okay to not be okay. 

And honestly, to me, if you're willing and you're able to say that you're not, and you can accept that there's something going on that you don't understand how to handle it, but you want to at least be able to handle it, maybe not understand exactly how you did it, but to be able to do it, you really have to start out with being okay with it's not okay to be okay. And I think that ultimately is what she was saying to me with that ultimatum, with everything that was going on. And I never once blamed her. 

I mean, I thank her every day and I tell everybody, I don't know why she still puts up with me. She's got somebody that loves to do a million things at once and she backs me every step of the way. And so, I mean, I'm very thankful for it. 

And I don't ever remember having any anger towards her saying that to me. 

[Tom Faust] (26:44 - 27:07) 

So, let's move on toward fitness. So, you kind of resolved or worked through this problem through your running and your weightlifting and kind of helped to restore your mental health and your marriage. So, when you started training, tell us how that went with your mood, your thinking, your marriage, coming back together and then working toward Operation Warrior Fit. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (27:08 - 31:38) 

Absolutely. So, it started about 20, 22 months ago now. My wife for her 30th birthday wanted to do a marathon before she turned 30. 

And so, we had started looking at some different races here in the area. And that was really when I started going, like diving headfirst into doing more active stuff before it was just going to the gym and stuff. Because we didn't, like I said, we didn't have the money at the time to go and do these different events. 

And so, this past year and a half ago, almost two years ago now, when we started all this, we started signing up for these different races. And the very first one, before I joined the military, I ran cross country track in high school. I competed in an Olympic distance triathlon for a couple of years in college. 

And so, I was very active in everything that I did. And I run this first half marathon here in Asheville, North Carolina, and I crossed the finish line. And I'm like this like ugly, sobbing mess. 

The one place that I have no control over my emotions is the finish line. I'm always an ugly, sobbing mess, like very happy. Even if it's not me, and I just hear somebody ran their first half marathon or marathon, I'm sitting there like, that's so awesome. 

And tear runs down my face. But this is the first race that I had finished after the military, crossed the line. My mom is there and I'm like ugly, sobbing. 

And she's like, oh crap, what did Jonathan do? What's the problem here? And I just looked at her and I was like, mom, I did it. 

I did it. And in that moment, I think that was one big thing for me of leading up to this event and being able to see I am getting back into shape. I am happier every day that I'm working out a lot more. 

I can, my thoughts make a lot more sense. I have time to sit and talk with myself and kind of like unpack a lot of this stuff, even just in day-to-day life that is going on. This person at work ticked me off today. 

Instead of lashing out, I'm like, I'm going to think about you on my run tonight. And I'll come back with how I should figure this out tomorrow. And it's one of those that ultimately, I think my wife and I trained together. 

And so it's time that we get to spend together. While she has a run, I'll do the first couple of miles with her. And then she finishes up and I train for 700 miles. 

I got a lot longer to go after that. So we get to train together and it's something we have in common and we have goals both that center around it. And so it ultimately, I think is something one that my wife and I built a community for her and I. 

It's our little space that we're able to go do stuff together. We go to a run club together on Thursday nights, and then we hang out at a brewery afterwards with a bunch of people that we've become friends with. And then Saturday mornings, we get to go do a run and she runs some with me and then she turns into my video team while I'm doing the rest of the run and recording stuff and helping with our social media. 

And so for me, it's the community. It just mentally and physically, you are engaging and it gives you those different chemical releases. And so you're just happier as a person, as a whole. 

And I promise you, yesterday I had a miserable run. It was 84 degrees by the time I got done, 100% humidity. I think it felt like it at least. 

And we had no shade on the run the whole time because I made the decision of this very long two miles straight away that we just kept running back and forth. And I was the happiest person after the run, though. I felt great. 

We had done a great run. And today, just as happy. And so, yeah, I really think it's just fitness as a whole and it doesn't have to be just running. 

It's the world that I live in, so I talk about it the most. We want to support anybody and everybody. If you're a competitive downhill skier, if you're a competitive kayaker, that's what our organization ultimately wants to do. 

[Chris Faust] (31:41 - 32:11) 

Nice. So Operation Warrior Fit works with race organizers and fitness partners to provide opportunities for veterans and first responders, activity personnel, and those folks there. And there's usually some sort of commitment fee for each event, but it looks like it can be waived as one of the things if it becomes a genuine barrier. 

Give us a little more insight into the whole birth of Operation Warrior Fit. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (32:11 - 35:12) 

As I mentioned earlier, I always wanted to do private business. And so when I looked at starting a nonprofit, I was like, how can I treat it with something that I've studied and read about and learned about for years to make it successful? And so ultimately, it was market research, it was market feasibility. 

And so we started out and I was like, is there anything out there? And that was the first kind of search that we did. And we came up with some amazing organizations that I hope to work with one day with Team Red, White, and Blue, Travis Manion Foundation, all of these different ones that have a spin on what we do, but it's not exactly what we did. 

And that's part of the reason that we designed it this way. And it also actually came from another veteran organization out there that has similar models with some other stuff that I was like, why isn't there? I think the simplest thing that I said to my wife was like, why is there not something for active events with this? 

And that's where more research came in. And then I had like two weeks between my last job and the job that I currently work for at my nine to five. And I had sent out like 500 emails to different race directors of running events, biking events, triathlons, just basically saying like, is this something that you would support? 

Is this a feasible idea? Is this something that if one person came back out of those 500, then either we need to find a different approach, I don't word my emails correctly, or we just need to figure out what's going to work here before we put in the time that it takes to stand up any sort of nonprofit. And we got back some amazing support. 

One of our partners now with Spartan, they were one of the first people that responded to my emails. And now we've got free entries across the country to Spartan events. And so we started all of this and very quickly realized, about every day we add five to 10 races to our website, the support is there and the people want to get active. 

It's like the tough side of me, I could say is like, I don't ever want somebody to have the ability to make an excuse to be at a race. So if we're $10, if we're completely free, if you're doing a Spartan event, or you've reached out to our team and said, hey, this is my circumstances, I can't make it happen. And we waive the fee and you're out at an event, I've eliminated every other excuse you can make. 

Like, let's get you to show up, let's get you to be active. And let's get that one mile fun run, that 5k, 10k, triathlon, whatever it may be, let's get you to experience what it's like and to have that good physical chemical release after the fact of, holy cow, I just did something I never really thought I'd want to do or thought I would do. 

[Tom Faust] (35:12 - 35:36) 

The $9.95 commitment fee that you talk about per event, I seem to remember talking to you earlier that the reason that this is necessary, and you have to have sponsors help you, help you with this is because the fees generally are expensive. I'm not familiar with the fees for these running events. What do they cost? 

And how does this make it better? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (35:37 - 37:45) 

It really depends, you know, it depends on the distance, the type of race that you're doing, a local 5k can be $30 to $40. Where we currently live in Asheville, North Carolina, there's some 5ks that are 60 plus dollars. When you start talking about like the half marathon distance or the marathon distance, I mean, you easily can be dropping $150 to $300 per entry. 

So if you're a couple, you know, you're talking $300 to $600 to go just tow the line at the event, that doesn't include your travel, that doesn't include gearing up for the event, training for the event. I'm starting to price out everything. And again, it's the extreme, but I'm starting to price out all of the equipment, the nutrition and everything that I'm going to need. 

And I'm working on getting those orders placed this week. And shoes alone, you know, it's $500 or $600 in shoes that I'm looking at for three pairs of shoes, or four pairs of shoes now. And nutrition, I spend, I like the fancy stuff. 

And anybody that knows me that happens to be in every aspect, I somehow find myself at the fancy stuff of the stuff that can be out there. But I spend $50 or $60 a week in all my nutrition stuff, just to make sure that my recovery is good. You know, I have the fuel that I need on my long runs that I'm doing every day. 

And so if we're able to offer some sort of elimination of that barrier, that is our ultimate goal. And, you know, in a perfect world, we ultimately, 10 years down the road, find an answer how to eliminate every single barrier that could be faced when trying to go to these different events. It's just not feasible being, you know, eight months into this now. 

And we want to make sure that we're good. And we have the ability to provide those entries before we even look at, you know, expanding our programs by any stretch. And there's over 175,000 running events in the US alone. 

That doesn't include triathlons, Spartan events. So I've got a very long, long list of emails to still continue to send. 

[Tom Faust] (37:46 - 37:53) 

So does Operation Warrior Fit solve other problems besides price? Or is that kind of what you're looking toward the future for? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (37:55 - 41:02) 

So we are up front, yes. That is the financial barrier was kind of the first, you know, thing that we wanted to try and fix. The other aspect of it has kind of just fallen in place naturally. 

It wasn't necessarily something that we thought right off the bat, like, hey, here's our four targets that we want to hit. And we need to hit them all kind of simultaneously. It kind of just ricocheted into the other targets and hit them while we were doing it. 

And it's the idea of a community. When you do a lot of these events, it's not short of like a one mile fun run or something like that. You don't have, you can't just show up to a start line. 

You have to have some sort of training before that. And so part of that is we're working with run clubs across the country. We're reaching out to them saying, hey, if you have somebody in your area that comes out and says they're with our organization, would you be happy to host them, help them get ready for whatever event that they're doing? 

And we also ultimately after the state run this year, we're going to help stand up some local run communities in the area. Some bike groups really bring people on that are wanting to stand up some of these different communities so that, you know, Saturday afternoon, you can go out with a mountain biking group that's veterans and first responders and supporters of the community and you've got something to look forward to. And the other aspect to that though is building a local support network. 

So, you know, I've got an amazing support network. I'm very fortunate with the guys that I still talk with, but one of them lives in Alaska, one lives down in Miami, Florida. And so it's not something that I can be face to face with, you know, somebody who sit there and put their arm around you and on your shoulder or something like that when something's tough. 

You can have that phone to phone, but for me to get there, I would drop anything to get to any of my buddies and spend whatever amount it was for me to fly there as quick as possible. But a flight to Alaska is still six to 12 hours, depending if I caught the daily flight, the flight out of there. And so the goal with a lot of this support in this community too, is you build a local community and first responders, you know, supporting that side of kind of the service world of everything is my dad's a retired battalion chief in Florida. 

My mom's a retired nurse. My uncle's a retired police officer. My father-in-law and uncle-in-law are both retired army officers. 

And so when I was growing up, I was around first responders, active duty, national guard, all of that with my family as a whole. And there's a correlation there. They're the similar type of people. 

And I've experienced that with my dad after service of being able to understand, okay, that's that little like weird thing that he does. And it's because of this. And I'm like, okay, I understand it a little bit better. 

And so being able to bring those like people together, I really hope. 

[Chris Faust] (41:03 - 41:29) 

And our goal is to have people that, you know, you might not have served with, but you've got somebody to call at 2 a.m. When you go to, you know, do these runs or sign up for them or everything that you said, you know, where you total on, you need to like, you know, actually, you know, like have some training, you know, do some stuff for it there. So who is Operation Warrior Fit really for? Is it like, just like, you know, the serious athlete, or is it like the person who's trying to get off the couch for the first time and do something? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (41:30 - 43:21) 

It's both. It is for everybody. And that's kind of the really cool thing is so we have, you know, Thanksgiving Day, the local turkey trots, that's actually the busiest day in the world of running, because every community has their local turkey trot. 

And and so it's for those people that go out to their first run, whether it is a one mile fun run of 5k. Or it's those people that have found an outlet and running and running or biking and triathlons or whatever, they still have a financial barrier that is there for them. And they want to do their first ultra marathon, they want to do their first 100 miler, their first Ironman, we continue to grow the different events that we support. 

This past week, we brought on a competitive standup paddleboard competition, didn't even know that was a thing. And we've got climbing competitions on our website. And we've got fat tire festivals, fat tire races, cyclocross races, it's really for anybody and everybody that wants to get active. 

And with us being in our first year, we just continue to grow, you know, the different disciplines, the different distances that we cover, and really starting to understand, okay, these are what our people are looking for. Are we heavy into Spartans? Are we heavy into downhill mountain biking? 

Or do we, you know, are we having a lot of runners that are going out and crossing these finish lines? It's for everybody and anybody. And that's, and that's kind of the cool part. 

You know, we have dudes that did three years when they were when they turned 18, they're out at 21. And they're signing up for our organization. And I've seen, you know, several applications that have come through our website of people that are in their 60s, 70s and 80s that are still wanting to go out and do these different events. 

So yeah, it's really anybody and everybody. And I think that's the coolest part about all of it. 

[Chris Faust] (43:22 - 43:38) 

So I know there's kind of also following up on that a little bit here is the organizations that you work with, you know, like, is there any sort of way that you can make sure like, you know, one of these fitness organizations doesn't shame the people who are like physically struggling the most with trying to do these things? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (43:39 - 46:08) 

So there's not, you know, we're not there at every single race day. We have dozens of races that that we're a part of or that we have entries into across the country. So at the time, it's not feasible to have an OWF rep standing out there. 

I'm, I basically do all the day to day stuff. My wife helps with some of the like social media and everything, but I'm really the only representative of the organization. The thing though, for the most part, and it's something that I talk about a lot with race organizers and everything at the race organizer level, a lot of those people are putting on those different events because of what those events did for them, whether it was get them out of a problem or whether it was, it gave them that sense of confidence or that sense of purpose. 

There was so many things that led them to be that event coordinator. Most coordinators that you talk to will not tell you that they're in it for the money. It's because, you know, they love what biking does for people. 

They love what triathlons do and provide for people. And so I don't ever worry about it, you know, at the local level at the race day or anything like that. And one thing that I stress heavily and a perfect example of it, my buddy's wife, who's not military or related in any aspect, but she wanted to start running. 

And she reached out to me and we smack talk all the time. Like I'd smack talk, like I smack talk to him with her and she returns it just as much. And she was like, okay, Jonathan, like you can't make fun of me when I ask you this. 

And I'm like, okay, what's up? Like, it's kind of weird. What's up though? 

And she's like, I want to start running. What do I need to do? And I will never, ever talk any smack about anybody that's trying to go out and do something. 

And that's, what's really cool about the community for the most part is everyone is in that same mindset of if you're a biker, if you're a runner, getting out there and doing it is just as awesome as if you're winning these massive events. And that's one thing that I stand by. And I get very passionate about people that want to talk about, you know, talk bad about people that are out there. 

And it's like, well, you don't know their story. Take a minute and learn that person. You're probably not going to talk as much smack as you thought you were. 

[Tom Faust] (46:09 - 46:39) 

That's good to know. I think for our listeners to know that if they're interested in getting into this, but they've never done it before, you know, like I've never run a marathon. The most I've ever done is a 12K and I walked it, not ran. 

And so, yeah, it's good to know that nobody's going to look down on them for not doing well or for only walking instead of running or not even finishing, but they tried, they showed up and they got there and that being consistent and showing up, I think is going to be what really helps build them up. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (46:41 - 47:22) 

Absolutely. And that's what we look at is one of the expectations when you sign up for a race is that you show up. We don't have anything that says you have to finish. 

Like that would be unreasonable. You have an injury, you have something that goes wrong. Three months ago, I just DNF'd my first race or did not finish my first race. 

Like I'm not going to hold that against anybody. And so like to work with our organization and to work with any race organization ever, you know, showing up and toeing that line is the criteria. And I want you to go kick butt, but sometimes kicking butt might have to wait until another day and, you know, you go fix that injury or you learn a lesson. 

And that's the thing. You learn something, you move on. 

[Tom Faust] (47:22 - 47:41) 

If somebody, this is kind of just a curious question. If somebody can afford an entry, but uses one of the donated spots that you apply for it anyway, is there a way that you restrict that to so that it doesn't stop somebody from getting a chance that really can't afford it? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (47:42 - 50:52) 

So we like to have the conversations right now with everybody of like, I personally email everyone. We're still small enough right now. I'm emailing everybody every time like, congrats, go kick butt, let me know how it is. 

Like it comes from my personal email or my nonprofit personal email. The, right now we're still learning how to, what people are interested in, you know, is it skewed very heavily to running and it is biking. And so we're having to do a lot of our data research right now. 

And fortunately we have more entries than we do participants. And that's one thing we're pushing very heavily on. And that's part of what, you know, the 700 mile run is about is spreading awareness about what we're doing. 

What I think about when I look at what we offer is we may not offer this 5k for you, but our goal is there's four others in the background that you can get signed up for, because ultimately short of us looking at people's bank accounts, you know, we can't know a true story of financials and everything like that. We have to rely on, you know, what their household income is or something like that. And if they put zero to 50,000 a year in their household, how much can we trust that? 

And so my goal is to actually be able to offer more than we possibly can so that that never becomes an issue. And one of the really cool things that we're working on as well, and we're hoping to have it probably in the next 12 to 18 months is a scholarship fund. So when we fill up all of our entries on our site, it doesn't close out the event. 

So like the codes are claimed, but you can add it to your wishlist or be on the wait list. So if someone backs out and they can't make the event, they can be an option to move into that race. Part of something that we're working on is one, the amazing race organizers that we work with. 

A lot of them are like, our universal ask is two entries per event. I've gotten emails with 20 entries where they're like, hey, we want to help you. Here's 20. 

And I'm like, okay, I really got to find 20 people now to make this worth it, you know. But we work with the organizers and a lot of them have said, hey, here's two, but if you have five, just let me know and we'll get them into these events. And if they're not able to, our goal with this scholarship fund is to be able to offset that. 

And if we have 10,000 people that want to do the same race, okay, we're going to have to have some people that can't necessarily get there or I need to start my own race in that area and make sure everyone does. But we ultimately want to be able to offset as much as we can, where we aren't the barrier to people getting into these events. Unfortunately, we will ultimately where we have high demand races. 

That is our goal to have these big marathons when you look at different organizations and to have these big triathlons and different ultras and everything like that. But our ultimate goal is to be able to get everybody and anybody possible and to be able to offer that to anybody. 

[Chris Faust] (50:53 - 51:07) 

With all this, I'm sure you're highly focused on documentation and transparency because it is still pretty new. Are you preparing for accountability or are you also afraid somebody might question your motives with all this? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (51:08 - 53:05) 

No, I don't think so. And part of what we do to offset that is I actually keep, I've got a paper printout binder of any documents that we receive of any sort, all the way down to bank statements that I changed or I forgot the debit card number and they had to send me a new one. But our goal is to be as transparent as possible so no one ever questions that. 

With the history of nonprofits that we've seen over the last several years, I don't ever want somebody to be like, oh wow, he's doing this because he wants to make a million dollars and this is how he's going to do it. And that's not the case. I am so much happier when I get to see people cross the finish line for their first time or get to go do this cool event and be out there with them. 

That is my ultimate goal is be at every race possible to see these people go out there and kick some butt. And part of that too, on our website, we've got a full section that's transparency. So as we continue to grow everything short of partnership documents that we're working on to establish, we'll be on that website. 

I'm pretty transparent when it comes to what I'm doing with the organization. Anyone can really ask any question about it short of the partnerships that we're trying to build with different organizations. But as soon as they're a partnership, I'm announcing them because I'm excited. 

It's been bad enough that we'll finish up a partnership at six o'clock at night and I'm like, all right, I got to post it right now. My wife's like, no, you got to wait till tomorrow when everyone's on their phones or on their social media to post. I'm like, yeah, but it's really cool. 

I want to do it right now. And she's like, just wait until the morning. You'll be fine. 

And so yeah, I never want somebody to ever question what we're doing. And if they want to, a binder sitting here that they can look through and every paper document, every receipt, everything like that lives in it. 

[Tom Faust] (53:07 - 53:30) 

So you mentioned that right now you're personally responding to pretty much everybody that bites in and wants to apply or whatever. At some point, hopefully, because you want this thing to grow at some point, that's going to probably be too much. How do you think you'll prevent Operation Warrior Fit from becoming dependent on your personality and your physical accomplishments? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (53:32 - 56:33) 

I think it will be something that we ultimately are going to build a team around what we're doing. And it's going to be people that are just as passionate. I'm very lucky that I've got people reaching out all the time of like, hey, how can I help? 

What can I do to help the organization? Because they believe in what fitness can do for people as well and competitive fitness, ultimately, going out and getting to run these races with people all around you. And so I truly do believe that it's something, it may not necessarily be a message for me, but it's going to be somebody on our team that is just as much as passionate about what we're trying to do. 

And ultimately, like I said, short of, I can't be at every race every weekend, but I want to be out at these different events that I'm out there cheering for them or I'm competing with them. And I've got my own goals when it comes to running. That's what this blue sheet taped up on my wall is, is all the different races that I want to do over the next several years. 

And I want to do everything in between with people that we're able to. And we document that we're with the state run. We've got a full documentary team that's going to be with us, and we're going to have segment videos and a whole like 10 to 20 minute piece about the thing. 

I'm going to be out there manning my personal social media, posting all kinds of stuff the whole day. My wife's in charge of the nonprofit side of it to really tell the different stories that we're hearing throughout the thing, because I'm doing the run, but I'm just kind of the thread to this whole story. My goal is to be able to tell people different stories or to hear people's different stories and to really be able to amplify them as much as possible. 

And if a year from now, I get a message of, Hey, I ran a mile with you out of that 700 mile run that you did a year and a half ago. I just did my 5k and I'm looking at my first 10k. That run was the best thing that I could have ever done. 

That is my ultimate goal. I have my personal goals of like, yes, I want to finish this run. On my side of things, that is a personal goal that I have. 

But if I got that email, it's 150 times better to me that somebody is now out running or somebody is now doing a triathlon because the run was the scariest part to them. And they're like, Hey, that wasn't too bad. And he did 700 miles of that. 

I can do 10 at this triathlon or something like that. That I believe is the culture that we're going to create around all of this. I can amplify it, but I do truly believe that it's going to come with the team because the more that we can grow our team, the more impact that we can have, the more outreach that we can have, the more people that we can have out of events and a community that starts to build. 

It starts with me, but I 100% believe it does not end with me. 

[Chris Faust] (56:35 - 56:47) 

For Operation Carolina, how will you decide whether it succeeded or not? Is it going to be the miles? Is it going to be the money raised, the partnerships form, or just that one person telling you that they kept going? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (56:49 - 58:18) 

I think the ultimate is the one person telling me, Hey, I kept going. I signed up for that first race. I did this because I saw you do that. 

I mean, the obvious, I hope we get the whole 700 miles without too many issues. I assume I'm probably going to have a couple blisters here and there and stuff, but ultimately being able to complete it. And we do have a fundraising goal of 75,000 across the state, and that really helps us continue to start that scholarship fund that I talked about. 

And it helps us be able to continue to grow our team so the emails don't all rely on me and really start to get our organization out there and have people at these different events. And so I think there's a magnitude of different successes and it kind of depends on what lens you look at. As a whole, it is getting people out there and getting them active, but on the nonprofit side, like organizationally or like in a business idea, it is to raise the money for the organization for us to continue to have these impacts. 

And on a personal side for me, it is, you know, finish the 700, but get that email in a year or two. And somebody is like, hey, I just did this because I saw you do this a couple of years ago. So I really do believe it comes down to the kind of the lens that you look at from the aspect of it, but I could crawl the last hundred miles and finish hopefully and get that email. 

And I still mark that up as a win in my books. 

[Tom Faust] (58:19 - 58:36) 

So as we come closer to wrapping this up, what would you say to the veteran or first responder who's listening that doesn't have any race circles marked on his calendar, no group waiting, no idea of really what he's going to do tomorrow. What would you say to them to encourage them to do this? 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (58:39 - 59:39) 

Give it a chance. It's the most simple thing possible. There's, you know, there's amazing options when you look at Team Red, White, and Blue to get involved with the fitness chapter in your area or Travis Manion has, you know, if not me, then who? 

That's their thing that they truly live by. I think it starts with understanding what support mechanisms are out there for you. There's amazing organizations, and I'm very fortunate to get to talk to them on a regular basis of different options to get you active, to get you healthy. 

And you really got to start somewhere. And I think it comes back to what I was talking about earlier was it's okay to not be okay. And let's, you know, let's get past that barrier and then let's get you active. 

Let's get you moving. Let's get you in a community. And that all starts with you taking that first step. 

And I really do believe that's the most powerful thing anybody can do. And I will praise anybody that takes that first step, whether it is successful or not, because at least you've started moving in the right direction. 

[Tom Faust] (59:41 - 59:57) 

Right. Well, I just want to really thank you for being on here. I've enjoyed this conversation. 

I think it's learned a lot of good stuff about it, too. And so, yeah, this is just encouraging that you're helping so many other people. So I just want to thank you for being on here and sharing this with us and with all of our listeners. 

[Jonathan Milkovich] (59:59 - 1:00:09) 

I thank you all for the opportunity. You know, it means the world to me to be able to start talking about this and have people that support it and want to help get the word out there. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

[Chris Faust] (1:00:10 - 1:00:53) 

Yeah, absolutely. And we'll put all your, put the information that people are looking for, you know, in the, you know, for the podcast so that they can access to it. And yeah, I want to thank not only you, but everybody else for tuning in and listening. 

You know, as I always say, it's why we do this, to spread the information, give somebody out there, give them options to do. Make sure you like, subscribe, you know, forward, pass the message along, get the word out there, because it's it sounds like a really fun, really good organization that can do a lot of good things and hopefully help people with their own, you know, whether it's wanting to get back into doing fitness stuff or helping, you know, finding some way to center themselves that they might not have realized that they needed yet. 

[Tom Faust] (1:00:55 - 1:00:59) 

All right, great. Well, with that, we will see you next time.