Written by Brock Cannon. DBR is a proud partner of Prevail Botanicals.
In 2016, I started running mountains. I had just “retired” from elite mountain bike racing and was discovering a newfound love to scaling peaks around Salt Lake City, Utah, where I lived at the time. The addiction to running those peaks was real, as was my addiction to ibuprofen.
It’s what my mom did. She had three knee surgeries in her life, after all, and I watched her take the pain killer all the while assuming it was helping the swelling and inflammation. W
I had been cycling at a high level for over 15
It got to the point that I was taking six pills in the morning, and another six at night so that I could keep running mountains. The pain kept coming back and, finally, after becoming incredibly frustrated, I started looking into alternative medicines, plants, and other natural anti-inflammatories.
Somewhere deep in my search, I had heard of cannabis being touted as a plant that had medicinal benefits, despite the emerging legal status of the plant in so many parts of the States. When I traveled to Colorado, I went into a dispensary and bought a cannabis topical cream that I could rub directly onto my sore legs. The cream did help, but it still wasn’t producing the result I was hoping for and was also quite expensive.
I continued to research cannabis more: proper dosages, delivery methods, and ended up learning about CBD, or cannabidiol. I learned that cannabidiol was one of over 100 cannabinoids that are contained in the cannabis plant. CBD happened to be one of the power houses for reducing inflammation, but without the “high” effect of the plant typically desired by recreational users.
For the better part of a year, I tried nearly 100 different CBD products. Most were the same junky product made in the same factories. A few were reasonably effective, but if I was being honest with myself, nothing was truly reducing the inflammation.
I wasn’t after a placebo. I wanted something that really worked, even after the most brutal 7-hour days in the mountains. Since nothing was really working that well, I decided to seek out how to create my own.
I needed purity in the CBD that was unsurpassed and extracted cleanly. I also knew I needed more potency (basically just more full spectrum CBD per milligram), and also other natural essential oils and botanicals that have anti-inflammatory properties. After an arduous search, I finally found a wonderful manufacturer out of Boulder that worked with me to customize the perfect formula. Prevail was born.
It worked on my own sore and achy legs better than anything I had ever tried, but would it work for others? My gut said yes, but the testimonials that have flowed in since that time have blown my mind: Runners with gnarly fractures, sprained ankles, pulled or torn muscles, cramps, shin splints, and virtually every other running-related injury were posting and writing about it on social media. Some would feel the effects in less than five minutes, some a few hours, and worst case scenario some just woke up the next morning feeling better.
Seeing people run, power-hike, ski, walk, or ride their bikes again with less or no pain has been the very thing that drives me each day. Getting out into nature and pushing our limits is what this sport is all about, and being able to enjoy it just a little bit more through something natural is amazing. I just want people to go further, train harder, recover faster, and as a result of feeling good-enjoy life more.
That’s what our mission is really all about.
Check out Prevail Botanicals.