Life is about growing and evolving. This is my next evolution.
Over the past decade, I dedicated myself to the pursuit of pushing myself as far out of my comfort zone as I possibly could. Partially as a way to overcome my demons, partially as a way to cope with the military envy I adopted after losing my chance to attend the first ten weeks of Officer Candidate School the summer between my third and fourth year at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and partially in an effort to develop some of the renowned perspective that many of the great Stoics gained from facing adversities head-on.
MY ENDURANCE BEGINNINGS
In 2009, I found my first obstacle race, the Men’s Health Urbanathlon in Chicago. I ran it with 6 of my friends that I knew from high school. It rocked my world. Suddenly, running was fun. Suddenly. running was all I wanted to do, at least as long as there was a rock to carry, a wall to climb, a tunnel to crawl through, a staircase to climb, as long as there was some obstacle, I was all in. This, all came about after my discovery a race with the URL, www.youmaydie.com, it was the Death Race – a 60-hour adventure race where the organizers try to make you quit. Could I do it? Could I not only survive but thrive? I had to find out and thus I set out on an adventure that took 3 years to earn an official finish and landed me a job at Spartan Race, Inc eventually as the Director of Endurance. In that time, I directed over 100 endurance events ranging from 4-60+ hours in length, all over the United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico, competed in three Spartan Death Races, the Peak 100, two Survival Runs – one in Texas and one in Nicaragua, I lived in a travel trailer and traveled the Western States visiting national parks, random trail races, and Spartan Races along the way, I made it to the Houston City Finals on American Ninja Warrior Season 7, I’ve even summited Mt. Rainier, Mt Shuksan, Mt. Adams, and Mt St. Helens, and I (with the help of an amazing support team) launched the SISU 24 Ultra Adventure Run here in my new home in the Pacific Northwest. Endurance is my life. And one thing I learned at a young age is that if you have a breadth of knowledge, you share it, and that’s what I hope to do here, share my endurance and adventure knowledge.
Surrounding myself with the growing sport of obstacle, endurance, and adventure racing, I found myself developing intricate programs, point systems, and challenges that pushed people to unbelievable extremes. Seeing firsthand how far humans can go has given me a new perspective that forces me to continue to make myself comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s why, I find myself heading to the mountains at least once a week these days, not only to complete the 52 Hikes Challenge I committed myself to, but to push myself, to face my fears, to work on my weaknesses, and most importantly to find my soul.
MY DEATH RACE IS OVER, FOR NOW
With this new site, my plan is to continue what I started to build with The Legend of the Death Race, except with That Endurance Guy I can expand outside the niche topic of specifically the Death Race. This all comes as a part of my long term plan, the Death Race was a transformational part of my life, so much so that I took all my blog writing and turned it into a book. The first few months of 2019, I have been working tireleslly with my editor to wrap up my book, I want to bring the book and the project that is, The Legend of the Death Race to some sort of conclusion, at least, for the time being. The Death Race will always hold an extraordinarily special place in my heart and my soul. It helped me build a whole new foundation for myself.
Going forward, the focus will be to deliver unique content here on a regular basis, I’ll provide you with reviews about the gear that I’ve fallen in love with while using on my adventures, which of course I’ll share plenty of stories about, adventure reviews will come complete with itineraries that you can follow and replicate, and you’ll be the first to know about any Endurance Events I am hosting. Since I am slowly getting back into racing myself, I’ll share the occassional race recap from various trail runs, ultra-marathons, and perhaps even that triathlon I keep telling myself I’ll finally do. On top of that I’m going to put together a few training and lifestyle posts that will include topics such as the importance of meditation, yoga, and rolling in your fitness routine, or how to incorporate more weight into your everday training routine, or how to strengthen your ankles for trail running.
THAT ENDURANCE GUY || RESOURCES
Here and on the home page, you can find the menu, you can also navigate via the sidebar menu to access Adventure Reviews, Gear Reviews, Endurance Events, Training, and Lifestyle sections. I looking forward to continuing to share my journey and adventure with you. It is my hope to inspire you and help educate you through my own mishaps and trial and error. I hope you find my posts funny, resourceful, and that they inspire you to go on your own adventures.
