Aaron Coleman has spent five decades chasing mountains, rivers, and the outer edge of what his body can do. In this episode, he sits down with Nathan Baumeister and Matt Carlson to trace how a childhood in Idaho and years of team sports built the foundation for a life defined by outdoor pursuit.

Aaron walks through his first real test: summiting Mount Rainier in roughly 24 hours with a friend who packed a tarp instead of a tent. From there, the conversation turns to a backcountry ski trip in Alaska that nearly ended in tragedy, and the gut check that comes when six goal-driven friends have to choose between pride and survival. Aaron also opens up about his annual eight-day wilderness float trips in remote Alaska, including one night when a teammate's hypothermia turned a fishing trip into a real emergency.

Aaron Coleman is a sales leader, coach, and lifelong outdoorsman based in Boise, ID. Over three decades he has summited countless mountains, run backcountry ski lines across Alaska and the Rockies, and completed more than 20 multi-day wilderness float trips through remote river systems draining into the Bering Sea. He has coached baseball, football, softball, and rugby, and has spent his career in sales leadership, work he credits directly to lessons learned in the mountains.

Roni Jones-Perry has been an athlete since she was three years old. Gymnastics first, then a pivot at 13 when the money ran out. Then volleyball, which took over her life by sophomore year of high school and hasn't let go since. She played at BYU, went to the Final Four her senior year, played four seasons overseas in Italy, Poland, and Brazil, and now plays professionally for a team in Salt Lake City.

On paper, that is a clean arc. In conversation, it is anything but.

In this episode, Roni talks about what gymnastics actually built in her, and why leaving it at 13 was the best thing that could have happened. She talks about arriving at BYU convinced that more physical work was always the answer, and slowly learning it wasn't. She talks about playing her best professional season alone in Poland for six months, performing at the highest level of her career, and feeling completely empty doing it. And she talks about the decision she made with her brother-in-law on a hot afternoon that changed how she thinks about why she does hard things at all.

The line she kept coming back to, the one her college coach used to say that she rolled her eyes at and now quotes constantly: winning is really rare. It sounds like a consolation. It isn't. It's the whole point.

In this episode:

How gymnastics built a foundation she didn't know she had

What it cost to leave at 13, and why she's grateful she did

Arriving at BYU convinced that more physical work was always the answer

The slow, uncomfortable process of learning to work smarter instead

Going to the Final Four her senior year, and what she wishes she'd done differently

The first season overseas: what professional volleyball actually is, and how it's nothing like college

Playing her best statistical season alone in Poland, and why it felt like the worst year of her career

What Brazil gave her that no other place had

The conversation with her brother-in-law that changed her relationship with fear as motivation

Coming home to Salt Lake City, and what it means to finally stop putting the rest of her life on hold

She finished a triathlon, shot a wedding that same evening, and once woke up in a Mexican ambulance at mile 111 with a broken collarbone, still convinced she could finish. Forty more miles into the dark and a breakdown at mile 60 of her first 100-miler: Amy Gawlik is not someone who does things halfway.

In this episode, Nathan and Matt sit down with Amy, triathlete, ultrarunner, wedding photographer, single mom, and Okape's own photographer and brand collaborator, to talk about what physical pursuit has actually cost her, what it has given her, and what she hopes it leaves behind.

Amy shares how a flyer in a bike shop led to her first sprint triathlon, how a six-year break from the sport ended with a return to Ironman racing, and how she went from her longest run ever being 38 miles to crossing the finish line of Rocky Raccoon 100 in Huntsville, Texas at the 25-hour mark. She talks about the specific moment at mile 60 when she told her mom she couldn't go on, what her mom said back, and why that exchange gave her everything she needed to finish.

The conversation goes deep on the relationship between physical discipline and entrepreneurship, how training for extreme endurance events shaped how Amy built and runs her photography business, and what it felt like to watch her daughter Ava complete her first triathlon while standing on the other side of the finish line.

This one hits different.

In this episode:

01:25 Introduction and Amy's background in triathlon 02:28 From swimming in high school to her first sprint triathlon in 2007 09:54 How a bike shop flyer changed everything 12:29 The Cozumel Ironman: mile 111, a crash, and waking up in an ambulance 21:49 The six-year break and what brought her back 23:31 What triathlon taught her about building a business 30:57 Mile 60 of Rocky Raccoon 100: the breakdown, and the moment that saved the race 37:47 Why she signed up for a hundred miles in the first place 42:57 Hallucinations, raccoons, and a man in black at mile 94 46:11 What physical pursuit has given her that nothing else could 48:42 Ava's first triathlon, and planting the seed for their first Ironman together 50:45 What remains

About Amy Gawlik

Amy Gawlik is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Austin, Texas, with 16 years in the industry. She is also a competitive triathlete and ultrarunner who has completed multiple full Ironman races, podiumed at Galveston and Cabo San Lucas, and finished her first 100-mile trail race at Rocky Raccoon in February 2025. She is Okápe's photographer and visual brand collaborator.

About Okape

Okape is an achievement-gated performance apparel brand built on the belief that physical pursuit creates the conditions for self-reckoning and personal becoming. You don't buy Okápe first. You earn it.

What Remains is hosted by Nathan Baumeister and Matt Carlson, co-founders of Okápe.