Stretch Goals, Ultrarunning, Kidney Failure & Learning from Hardship

For this podcast, I plan to tell the story of why I got into ultrarunning. I was never a runner, but I decided this year to completely immerse myself in it. This year, I have finished 5 ultras, the last of which was a 100 miler that I podium at, but after finishing the race I suffered kidney failure.  I spend 5 days in the hospital and almost had to be put on dialysis. I basically developed Rhabdomyolysis where the muscle breakdown from running 26 hours straight poisoned my kidneys. 

I think this story is valuable to the podcast because I have learned a lot throughout the entire process, from setting a stretch goal, to training, to developing a working excel model for my race, to over-coming setback and learning from mistakes.  At the beginning of 2021, I interviewed Dan King, the founder of ReadyTalk who is also the World’s Fittest CEO. That discussion really opened my eyes of how and why physical fitness can make you a better leader and sharpen your resolved to handle stress and challenges.

If you are interested in ultrarunning, pushing yourself to physical limits, embracing challenges or just learning a little bit more about what makes me tick, I think you will like this episode. There is definitely some wisdom that you can apply to business and life. It is my most personal yet and I feel it has been helpful to showcase some of my vulnerabilities, which I hope is a leadership quality in and of itself.

Discussion Topics:

(2:20) Why I decided to get into ultrarunning.

(4:20) Motivating factors for running long distances.

(10:55) How to train for ultras.

(19:24) Overview of the actual 100-mile race.

(26:07) Suffering and overcoming post-race acute kidney failure.

(28:43) Lessons learned from this entire process.