850 Million Reasons To Run

It all started with a devastating diagnosis in the fall of 2020. Multiple chemo treatments, a stem cell transplant and many marathon finish lines later, Peter joins NYRR CEO Rob Simmelkjaer for a special LIVE taping of 850 Million Reasons to Run. Rob and Peter dive into the “memento mori” moment that reframed the meaning of Peter's life, turning a business leader into a global philanthropist with one singular quest- to turn his new found love of running into a global movement to empower

What happens when the person who saves your life is someone you’ve never met? A year after his transplant, Peter is finally allowed to contact the donor whose stem cells now run through his body and an eight‑page letter, dashed off at 38,000 feet, transforms into the meeting of two, forever connected humans. How do you pay it forward after the unthinkable? What do we owe others when someone else's good deed changes a man, a family and a future, forever? For Peter, the answer is RUN. Let's

Ninety nine seconds—that’s all Peter’s lungs can manage on his first post-transplant run. But the shock of those agonizing 200 meters ignites an out‑loud promise to himself: Peter pledges he will run the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon, just 12 weeks away. Starting with small steps, Peter shrinks the city into single‑block laps, keeping the memory of coughing up blood in reserve as inspiration to keep moving forward, step by step, to the start line on Staten Island. Race day erupts

A Tour de France postcard is all Peter clutches as he steps back through the hospital doors, determined to earn a permanent cure. He’s about to take on the most demanding stage yet, flanked by bossy nurses, amazed pulmonologists, his devoted cavapoo, and his wife, Torun—all rooting for him along this personal, indoor Tour. (It will feel like the toughest climb—until he laces up for the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon…but that’s the next episode.) This Tour de France

Meet Peter Kirk - a father, a New Yorker, and a runner - who found himself facing something far bigger than 26.2 miles. 850 Million Reasons to Run is the true story of Peter's journey—not just to the start line of the TCS New York City Marathon, but back to life itself. It’s about what happens when everything changes in an instant… and how running became the thread that helped put it all back together. Told in his own words—and through the voices of those closest to