jjae:

“I’m the kind of person that likes to do things that he doesn’t like to do.  I don’t like running, so that kind of drives me to run.”  David Goggins

Joel has been going through my old Runner’s World magazines and found this article on David Goggins, a Navy SEAL who “pushes himself to maniacal lengths to raise money for veterans’ families.”

It started off with him wanting to do the Badwater Ultramarathon, before he had any marathon experience whatsoever.

Days later, he entered a 24-hour race in San Diego. The ordeal left him with broken metatarsals in both feet and a case of kidney failure, but he did crank out 100 miles in less than 19 hours. Ten days later, he ran the Las Vegas Marathon in 3:08. And for ample measure, he entered the H.U.R.T. 100-Mile Endurance Run, one of the hardest ultras in the world. Goggins finished ninth. All this was in the span of two months.

In July 2006, with 50 pounds off his linebacker frame, Goggins lined up in Badwater with 84 other entrants, and finished fifth. Then he took second at the 2006 Ultraman World Championships (a double Ironman triathlon held over three days), though he didn’t yet own a bike. He returned to Badwater in 2007 and came in third. He won the Ultra Centric 48-hour run (covering 203 miles), and won the 2008 McNaughton 150-miler by three hours. “When I get to mile 75 of a 150-mile race and I’m completely trashed—that’s the only way I can see what David Goggins is all about,” he says.

As I read about him and watch his videos, I’m constantly shaking my head and laughing at the absurdity of it all - like, how he ran a 24-hour race with less than a week’s preparation, or how his first triathlon was an Ultraman (double Ironman).

The Runner’s World article is a little old, so if you go to his website, you’ll find that he’s actually done with running and has moved on to biking.  When he’s done with that, he’ll move on to something else, I guess.

It’s an amazing story, whether you are an endurance athlete or not.

Last year our agency built a site featuring David since our client, the US Navy, was sponsoring the 2008 Ironman. From what I heard on the shoot, he’s a very down to earth guy that just does completely out of the this universe things. He’s someone I admire just for the the dedication he has to complete these races.

The first time I heard about these Ultraman races I was in a meeting getting briefed on the athletes site, it’s strategy and goals. I remember getting the overview and making our creative director stop mid-sentence, rewind and go over what I just heard. I thought it was a joke. “You mean he runs like 100 miles a day?” I’ve never been as speechless in a meeting as I was at that moment. David is a badass, there’s no doubt about that.