What have you done lately???

• Completed 135-Mile ULTRA marathon across DeathValley (120 degree temps), a.k.a. Badwater Ultra Marathon, the toughest footrace on Earth
• First to run a marathon to the South Pole (negative 40 degrees temps) with sneakers
• Completed 200- mile Relay race -”Solo” running alongside teams of 12
• Completed 50 marathons (26.2 miles each) in 50 consecutive days in 50 states, finishing with the NYC Marathon. Then ran to St. Louis MO as a cooldown.

Miscellaneous activities;

• Swam across the San Francisco Bay
• Mountain biked 24 hrs straight
• Accomplished wind surfer
• Scaled Half Dome in Yosemite

Who is this superman?

The name is Dean Karnazes a.k.a. “Karno”

I came across this name in a running magazine a few years ago and I picked up a used copy of his paperback “Ultramarathon Man” and I read the book from start to finish. I reread the book multiple times highighting inspirational quotes and folding page corners of pages I like to reread.  The man is a real inspiration to me in many ways.  Believe it or not, there are many ultra marathoners out there (runs longer than marathon distance of 26.2 miles) with much faster times and feats just unworldly but Dean Karnazes still stands out in my book for many reasons. One, he is a well rounded athlete. He looks more like a Sprinter than a distance runner in that he has a well balanced physique due to his cross activities (training) and he states that its partly why he is able to put his body through so much punishment without injury. If you read his book and watched his interviews, you can see his love and passion for running.  Doing what he loves and raising a boat load of money for charities makes him a hero in my book.

A documenary by Journey Films have caught his amazing trek across all 50 states in 50 consecutive days and will be released at the end of this month and Dean is coming out with a second book based on this “marathon” of Marathons coming out in August (I can’t wait to get my hands on that one!).

If you can’t tell already, I’m a big fan of endurance athletes such as Kettlebell lifters and ultra marathoners.  Ultra marathons, like kettlebell sport is not a spectator sport “Yet” and really cannot be appreciated until you actually particpate.  Try running 3 miles or even a marathon and you can see the magnitude of running a 100 mile event or in Dean’s case, running a marathon for 50 days straight.  For us kettlebell lifters, try snatching a light 16kg or 12kg for 2-3 mins straight and then look at athletes such as Valery Fedorenko snatching a 32kg for 220 reps in 10mins (for those who don’t know, 10mins is our marathon) or Catherine Imes who snatched a 12kg 1000 times in less than an hour (I would say in my humble opinion that an hour or more of kettlebell lifting is our version of Ultramarathons)!!! These athletes/individuals set the path for the rest of us mortals, showing us the strength endurance of the human spirit and what is possible.  Their actions inspire thousands, maybe millions to take that first step on the road or lift that first kettlebell for that first rep. 

So, what have you done lately?  stop reading this blog and get out that door, find your calling and GET TO WORK!!

For more on Valery’s records, see http://www.physicalstrategies.com/tag/valery-fedorenko

And here’s a link to one of my favorite insightful interviews with Dean Karnazes:

http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200701/dean-karnazes-interview-1.html