Why Was Prevail Botanicals Started?

In 2016 I started running mountains. I had just “retired” from elite mountain bike racing and started finding a newfound love to scaling the peaks around Salt Lake City, UT, where I lived at the time. The addiction to running these peaks was real, and so was my addiction to ibuprofen.

It’s what my mom did. I mean, after all, she had three knee surgeries in her life, and I watch her take ibuprofen, assuming it was helping the swelling and inflammation, so why not follow her lead?

I had been cycling for over 15 years at a high level, and never really experience the banging of the knees as I came down these massive peaks. So as the pain and swelling set in each night, I would turn to ibuprofen. It got so bad that I was taking 6 pills in the morning and another 6 at night. I kept running mountains. The pain kept coming back, and so finally, after being so incredibly frustrated, I started looking into alternative medicines, plants, and other natural anti-inflammatories.

Deep in my search, I had heard of cannabis as being touted as a plant that had medicinal benefits, despite the emerging legal status of the plant in so many parts of the U.S. When I traveled to Colorado, I went into a dispensary and bought a topical cannabis cream that I could rub directly onto my sore legs. The cream was ok, but still not the result I was hoping for, and it was quite expensive. I continued to research cannabis more, proper dosages, delivery methods, and I 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 powerhouses for reducing inflammation, but without the “high” effect of the plant typically desired by recreational users.

So 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, and a few were reasonably effective, but nothing truly was reducing the inflammation if I was dead honest with myself. 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 really worked that well, I decided to seek out how to create my own. I needed purity in the CBD that was unsurpassed and extracted cleanly, more potency (basically just more full-spectrum CBD per mg), and also other natural essential oils and botanicals, which also had anti-inflammatory properties. After an arduous search, I finally found a wonderful manufacturer out of Boulder that worked with me to customize the formula just right. We changed it 3x, then finally dialed it in. 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 5 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 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.