Ryan Sutter, Reality TV Star, to Race Back-to-Back Endurance Events for Charity, Including Grassroot Soccer

Sutter to do Leadville Trail 100 MTB and GORE-TEX TransRockies Run
for Grassroot Soccer and First Descents

Ethan Zohn and Ryan Sutter

Reality TV star Ryan Sutter recently announced that he will compete in the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race on August 11 and the six-day Gore-Tex TransRockies Run August 14-19 to raise money for his two favorites charities, Grassroot Soccer and First Descents.

Sutter will be running the 120- stage GORE-TEX TransRockies race as one half of a two- man team with fellow Vail, Colorado firefighter Johnny LoFaro. What makes his endurance challenge even more impressive is the fact that he’ll be doing the brutal Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race just three days before.

“As far as preparation, that is simply the time tested recipe for suffering through challenge: focused effort, hard work and an unwillingness to quit, ever,” Sutter said in an email.

Sutter will participate in both events to raise money for Grassroot Soccer and First Descents. Grassroot Soccer, co-founded by Sutter’s friend and fellow reality TV star, Ethan Zohn, is an international NGO that uses soccer to educate youth in HIV and AIDS prevention. First Descents helps fund outdoor adventure therapy for young cancer patients and survivors.

“For me these events are about finding strength through adversity, suffering and challenge,” said Sutter. “It is about defining myself as a man and as a human being. I’ve seen the potential that exists in people as they face adversity, especially those who have faced it unwillingly through diseases like cancer and AIDS.”

Zohn was set to do the TranRockies Run with Sutter, but last September he had a recurrence of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and he is still recovering from treatment.

“I’ve been inspired by the demonstration of human will I have witnessed in First Descents and in Ethan,” said Sutter.

Supporters can make contributions online to Sutter’s efforts through CrowdRise.

Sutter works as a full time firefighter in Vail, while still managing to find time to make appearances and train. Despite his hectic schedule, he doesn’t plan on cutting back.

“I’ve been given hope and want to return the favor,” Sutter said. “The plan is to grow stronger and better as a person through adversity and a higher purpose. That’s why I’m doing this and that’s why I will continue to do things like this forever.”

Learn more about Grassroot Soccer here and about First Descents here.