Product Tester Puts Peluvas to the Extreme Test

Meet Tom Hodge of Lafayette, CA - far and away the world’s #1 Peluva user in terms of pure step count in Peluvas. Tom is a longtime extreme endurance athlete and decades-old disciple of Mark Sisson's training principles. He has been on a five-year odyssey to attend and/or participate in the most prominent endurance or ultra-endurance contests all over the globe.

If you follow him on Instagram, it’s not uncommon to see him sharing selfies with a who’s who of endurance legends:  - hanging with triathlon legend Mark Allen in Kona; cruising around the Alps with Killian Jornet; schmoozing the legendary Norwegian triathletes Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden; mugging with Alex Honnold at a climbing festival; smiling with Jennifer Lichter after her record-breaking Western States 100 performance; and much more Forest Gump-level cameos. 

Tom has done some valuable product testing for Peluva by reporting on the tread wear patterns after 1,000 miles in the Strand ATR or other such extreme road testing. He’s had numerous mind-boggling accomplishments, like covering 3,456 miles and accumulating over 400,000 vertical feet of climbing in one calendar year. The man is always on the go, but he’s embraced a new empowering perspective about his endurance pursuits in the big picture. Beyond his race results and celebrity encounters, he recently shared a more vulnerable message with us about his quest to “slow down” and smell the roses in life.

"I’ve always believed you can find a positive in any negative situation. That belief has been tested and confirmed over the past year. For 42 years, my life revolved around endurance racing - everything from Ironman’s to the UTMB ultramarathon in Europe. Pushing further, going harder, chasing the next finish line. Last year I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and everything changed. It was a wake-up call I didn’t know I needed. I’m grateful it’s one of the more curable cancers, but the diagnosis forced a reckoning: true wealth isn’t found at a finish line; it’s found in our health, and in the daily choices we make as we age. 

I’m 60 now, and I’ve come to see this diagnosis as a gift. It taught me to slow down to actually walk away from the endurance lifestyle I’d built my identity around for four decades. And in slowing down, I found something I didn’t expect: clarity about what really matters. 

A simple walk has become the most powerful therapy I have. No mileage goals, no splits to chase just movement, and space to think. I do those walks in my Peluvas. What started as a way to simplify my exercise has become something more. I’m building real muscle strength and better biomechanics, one walk at a time in my Peluva’s. There’s something almost poetic about it: a serious health scare, turning into the very thing that’s helping me build a healthier, happier road ahead. Peluva — thank you for helping me take the next step in life. Literally."

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