My name is Renekarl Paradela. Most people call me Ricky.
I’m a Filipino-American writer, musician, and endurance athlete based in San Francisco. I work at an infusion pharmacy. I run to work most mornings — 3.2 miles uphill. On weekends I train in the open water at Aquatic Park and do track at Kezar Stadium. In September 2026 I’m racing Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz. In December I’m running 100K alone — no race bib, no event, just a goal I gave myself.
I’m also writing a memoir.
It’s called Nomad Heart. It began in spring 2017 when my son Zeus was turning 14 and I sat down to write him a birthday letter and couldn’t get past two words. Everything I tried to say felt like a lie. I didn’t believe it yet myself. So I started a project: 100,000 words, whatever it took, until I could write one honest sentence to my son. That project became a road. The road became six years living out of my car — crossing America, nearly dying more than once in two weeks in late 2016, fracturing my skull on a pharmacy floor in 2020, returning to the Philippines after sixteen years. There I finally knew my son, formed a band, played the biggest show of my life with Zeus filming from the side of the stage, and ran out of money.
I came back to San Francisco alone with a finished album and a book that is the longest letter I ever wrote.
Zeus is 22. The dedication reads: For Zeus. In case you ever want to understand why.
I’m also a musician. My music project is called we are, et al. I have a completed album that I recorded in the Philippines that hasn’t been released. When it comes out, it comes out alongside the book — because they’re the same story told in two different languages.
This site is the archive. The Substack is where the work lives now.
Nomad Heart 