How Mark Dowdle Is Preparing to Run 500 Miles and Five Days Straight — and Why Competing Against Others Is the Wrong Goal | THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Mark Dowdle didn't grow up a runner.

He was a two-sport college athlete who heard David Goggins on a podcast during a bus ride home from a losing lacrosse trip, and decided to become a different person.

Six years later, he's on Team USA.

He's won backyard ultras covering 283 miles in 68 straight hours. He ran 135 miles through Northern Minnesota in sub-zero January temps and took first place. He spent an entire year running the day of the month in miles (every single day), logging 6,400 miles before most people finished their morning coffee.

He quit his job to go all in. And this October, he will represent the United States at the Big Dog's Backyard Ultra World Championship in Bell Buckle, Tennessee.

This is the kind of athlete that makes you question every excuse you've ever made.

Mark doesn't talk about motivation. He talks about systems. About decisions. About the thousand small choices inside a single race that determine who you actually are when no one is watching and everything hurts.

This conversation will mess with you—in the best way.

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How Mark Dowdle Is Preparing to Run 500 Miles and Five Days Straight — and Why Competing Against Others Is the Wrong Goal

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