The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #1080 - David Goggins

00:00:01.000 Five, four, three, two, one.

00:00:07.000 Boom, and we're live.

00:00:08.000 Thanks for doing this, man.

00:00:09.000 I appreciate it.

00:00:10.000 Hey, thank you for having me.

00:00:11.000 You're the only guy I've ever had in the studio where when I showed up, you were working out.

00:00:11.000 I appreciate that.

00:00:16.000 That's what I do, man.

00:00:17.000 That's my life.

00:00:18.000 That's my life.

00:00:19.000 That's pretty crazy, though.

00:00:20.000 I mean, how much time did you have when you got here?

00:00:22.000 I got here about an hour early.

00:00:24.000 Yeah.

00:00:24.000 Oh, okay.

00:00:25.000 We got a little early.

00:00:26.000 So I got here shirt off, doing chin-ups.

00:00:28.000 It was hilarious.

00:00:29.000 I didn't get my camera out in time before you saw me.

00:00:30.000 I wanted to take some pictures.

00:00:32.000 Well, maybe next time.

00:00:33.000 Next time.

00:00:33.000 Well, I'll catch you after the show.

00:00:36.000 You are a guy that...

00:00:39.000 For a lot of people, you sort of embody the idea of hardening your mind and figuring out a way to do things that most people think are impossible.

00:00:53.000 You've sort of become that guy over your life, and you've become that guy for a lot of people, including me, online.

00:00:59.000 We've talked about you on the podcast a ton of times, so having you in here has been very exciting to me.

00:01:05.000 I appreciate that.

00:01:06.000 Thank you.

00:01:07.000 How'd you become that guy?

00:01:09.000 You know what?

00:01:09.000 I grew up not that guy.

00:01:11.000 Yeah.

00:01:12.000 So a lot of people put a title on me.

00:01:14.000 They want to, they see me now. 0.99

00:01:18.000 They see me now as the guy that with his shirt off who can do 4,030 pull-ups in 17 hours, who can run 205 miles in 39 hours, who can do all this crazy shit. 0.86

00:01:28.000 But what they don't understand is they don't understand the journey that it took me to get to this point. 0.54

00:01:34.000 And what got me to this point was I was just the opposite of what I am today.

00:01:39.000 I was that guy who ran away from absolutely everything that got in front of me.

00:01:44.000 But not many people knew that.

00:01:46.000 I had two people.

00:01:48.000 Like the real me was like this very scared, insecure, stuttering, got beat up by his dad, all this kind of stuff. 0.99

00:01:56.000 And I built this fake person that walked around like my shit didn't stink, you know? 0.99

00:02:02.000 So that's kind of how I did it. 0.99

00:02:05.000 And through the process of time, I realized that I was lying to myself and lying to people.

00:02:10.000 But it's a fascinating journey, though, because you are that guy now.

00:02:14.000 I mean, you genuinely are a legit badass.

00:02:18.000 And at one point in time, you were a legit, terrified person.

00:02:22.000 So what was the process?

00:02:22.000 Yes.

00:02:24.000 How did you step forth?

00:02:27.000 Well, it's a long process. 0.96

00:02:31.000 My dad beat the shit out of me when I was growing up. 0.98

00:02:33.000 I was the first black baby born in this hospital called Miller Fillmore in Buffalo, New York. 0.99

00:02:39.000 My dad owned skating rinks, he owned bars, he ran prostitutes from Canada to Buffalo, New York. 0.99

00:02:45.000 My dad was a big-time pimp, big-time anything bad about a person, big-time hustler. 0.95

00:02:50.000 He was American.

00:02:52.000 You know that movie with them, D'Angelo Washington?

00:02:54.000 He was that, but not that bad.

00:02:56.000 You know, he wasn't that big, but that's what it reminds me of.

00:02:59.000 He was that kind of guy. 0.99

00:03:01.000 And beat the shit out of me, beat the shit out of my mom. 1.00

00:03:04.000 There was an incident one time when my mom got knocked out on top of the stairs, and he drug her down the stairs by her hair. 0.99

00:03:10.000 And at six years old, I'll never forget this.

00:03:13.000 In my mind, I was always afraid. 0.97

00:03:16.000 My whole life I was afraid, but I had this fucking voice, this conscience, that would always be battling me, saying, hey, you gotta get up and do something. 0.99

00:03:24.000 I didn't want to do shit. 1.00

00:03:26.000 You know, I was just afraid, but that voice would force me to get up, and my dad, you know, I'd try to beat him up, whatever, at 6, and I'd get my ass kicked. 0.99

00:03:34.000 So this went on for several years, and I have a big-time learning disability. 0.96

00:03:38.000 My dad didn't believe in us going to school.

00:03:40.000 So my dad, it was about the business, the skating rink and the bar.

00:03:45.000 So the skating rink opened about 7 o'clock at night, and this is the time I was able to walk.

00:03:49.000 So about, you know, 4, 5, 6 years old, 8, 9. And I'd go to the skating rink at 7 o'clock at night, and I'd work the skating rink until 10 at night.

00:03:59.000 And then we would scrape the gum off the floors, and we'd clean the whole skating rink up.

00:04:03.000 And then my dad had an office.

00:04:05.000 And my brother and myself would sleep in the office, and my mom would go upstairs and work the bar until 3 o'clock in the morning.

00:04:11.000 And then they'd clean the bar up. 0.98

00:04:12.000 So, after all that shit was done with, going to school rarely happened. 0.98

00:04:17.000 So when I went to school, I was all kind of, you know, my learning disability. 0.98

00:04:21.000 I had social anxiety.

00:04:23.000 I was just a jacked-up kid from living in this tortured home.

00:04:27.000 From the outside looking in, we lived in an all-white neighborhood, and then we would travel to the ghetto of Buffalo, New York, where the skating rink was at.

00:04:35.000 So, you know, we worked around mostly blacks, and I lived around mostly whites.

00:04:40.000 But no one knew what was going on in that house on 201 Paradise Road.

00:04:44.000 It's crazy.

00:04:46.000 But my mom got courage to finally leave him when I was about 8 years old.

00:04:50.000 We moved to a small town in Brazil, Indiana.

00:04:53.000 And that's when the real war started for me.

00:04:56.000 And Brazil, Indiana is a small town.

00:04:57.000 Great people.

00:04:58.000 A lot of great people.

00:04:59.000 And I say that because a lot of people get offended.

00:05:02.000 And I'm going to get to the point where they get offended.

00:05:05.000 There was about maybe 10 black families at about 10,000 people in the town.

00:05:10.000 And in 1995, the KKK marched in the 4th of July parade.

00:05:14.000 So this was a, not everybody was racist.

00:05:17.000 There was a lot of good people, some of the best people I knew was there, but there was also a lot of racism there.

00:05:21.000 So me being one of the few black kids in that, you know, in that area, you know, it kind of haunts you. 0.98

00:05:26.000 I had stuff on my notebook, you know, nigga, we're going to kill you on my Spanish notebook. 1.00

00:05:31.000 They had that on my car, nigga, we're going to kill you. 1.00

00:05:33.000 This is early 90s. 0.96

00:05:35.000 And so, even though I showed it didn't hurt me, it was jacking me up.

00:05:39.000 So all the insecurities I had when I was a kid with my father, I moved into this area here, and it just got worse and worse and worse. 0.99

00:05:47.000 And shit haunted me. 0.97

00:05:49.000 And that voice that I talked about, it kept talking louder and louder and louder, but I was doing nothing about it. 1.00

00:05:56.000 And I decided to make moves.

00:05:58.000 And I cheated all through school, and it's kind of humbling to talk about my story sometimes, and it's also embarrassing, but it's real. 0.99

00:06:08.000 It's who the fuck I am. 0.99

00:06:09.000 It's what I am. 1.00

00:06:10.000 It's what created me.

00:06:12.000 And copy from the fourth grade to my junior year in high school on every assignment.

00:06:18.000 And I want to get in the military.

00:06:19.000 I want to join the Air Force, and the guy gave me an ASVAB test.

00:06:23.000 It's like a watered-down SAT. And I couldn't copy on it because the guy beside me had a test A, I had test B, the guy on my right had test C. So I looked to copy on this test and I couldn't copy on it so I got like a 20. And I wanted to be an Air Force pararescueman.

00:06:36.000 It's guys that jump out of airplanes and save down pilots.

00:06:39.000 It's a special operator in the Air Force.

00:06:42.000 And my score was so horribly low that we'd take it again.

00:06:46.000 And he said, hey, I got like an 18 the second time, even worse.

00:06:50.000 I need to get a 50 out of a 99. And so my mom and I, for a while, we lived in the government-subsidized apartments, $7 a month, and also food stamps.

00:07:00.000 And we slowly moved up to a $230 a month place.

00:07:03.000 But at the time, you know, we were pretty poor.

00:07:07.000 But my mom afforded enough money for me to go to see a tutor one hour a week, so for four hours a month.

00:07:14.000 I had six months to study for my last test.

00:07:16.000 I was going to take the asthma test three times.

00:07:19.000 And I studied my ass off and passed it.

00:07:23.000 And I got in the Air Force and realized there was more things in front of me.

00:07:25.000 I was afraid of the water.

00:07:27.000 Terrify the water. 0.99

00:07:29.000 And I learned how to swim, but what gets everybody in this training, in all special ops training, is the water confidence, where they try to pretty much drown your ass. 0.93

00:07:38.000 You know, all of our lives we've been breathing.

00:07:40.000 And they take that from you, and they want to see how comfortable you are in the water.

00:07:44.000 And there's only 1% African Americans in special operations.

00:07:48.000 And I didn't know anything about African, like a lot of them are negative buoyant, which I am, because of the bone density. 1.00

00:07:54.000 I struggled.

00:07:56.000 But six weeks into the program, there was about 25 guys left out of about 150. I was there, and I didn't go to sleep for six weeks of the program.

00:08:06.000 And I wanted to quit so badly, but I quit everything in my life.

00:08:09.000 I copied through school.

00:08:10.000 I wanted to prove people wrong. 0.96

00:08:12.000 And so here I am, in this Air Force program, starting to get a little more confidence, but this water was kicking my ass, and six weeks into the program, the doctor gave me a blood test. 0.96

00:08:22.000 It was, I have sickle cell. 0.96

00:08:24.000 Sickle cell trait, not the anemia, but it still killed people. 0.95

00:08:27.000 But, so they pulled me out of training for a week, and when you go from being very uncomfortable in that water situation, and then now you're comfortable, and I'm sitting back watching the guys drown, you know, I'm not part of the activities anymore for this week, I didn't want to get back in that damn water again.

00:08:43.000 So the fear overcame me and all my insecurities from my dad, from this small town, from everything started coming back. 0.99

00:08:49.000 And even though no one knew how fucked up I was, kind of create this other person who was tough, I live with this shit all the time. 0.97

00:08:56.000 So, me not wanting to go back in that water, the doctor called me back up. 0.99

00:09:00.000 I thought I was going to get like a medical kick out of the military.

00:09:03.000 So, no quitting for me.

00:09:04.000 They'll kick me out so I can have some pride.

00:09:06.000 The doctor said, no, man, we could put you back in the training. 1.00

00:09:10.000 And I was like, fuck. 0.99

00:09:11.000 But after a week, I'm like, you know what? 1.00

00:09:13.000 I missed one week.

00:09:15.000 There's only three weeks left. 0.99

00:09:16.000 There's a good chance, you know, I could tough this shit out and go on. 0.95

00:09:20.000 But I went back to the CO and the command officer of the program and the sergeant said, hey, you got to start from day one because you missed, you know, that week of training. 0.98

00:09:29.000 And I broke.

00:09:31.000 I broke.

00:09:32.000 I couldn't imagine going back through that again.

00:09:35.000 So I made up a lie.

00:09:37.000 And I said, man, the sickle cell thing is really scaring me. 0.99

00:09:39.000 It was the fucking water. 0.99

00:09:41.000 It wasn't sickle cell. 1.00

00:09:42.000 And I pretty much quit.

00:09:44.000 Even though they gave me a medical, I quit.

00:09:48.000 So from the age of 19 to the age of 22, I went and did a job called Tag P, where you control fast movers behind enemy lines.

00:09:57.000 Cool job, but there's no water.

00:09:58.000 I was afraid of the water, so I avoided it.

00:10:01.000 And I gained 125 pounds in that time frame.

00:10:04.000 I went from 175 to almost 300, to 297 was my heaviest.

00:10:08.000 And I started finding things that was comfortable.

00:10:11.000 And the more things I found comfortable, the more uncomfortable my mind was.

00:10:16.000 Because that voice I was telling you about, it always was there.

00:10:19.000 I was just trying to avoid that conscience.

00:10:22.000 I wanted to be left alone from that conscience, and it wouldn't leave me alone.

00:10:26.000 So I got out of the Air Force, and I started working for a job called Ecolab, where you spray for cockroaches at 24, and spraying at different Steak and Shakes, Red Lobster, whatever, from 11 o'clock at night to 7 o'clock in the morning.

00:10:40.000 And what changed, I came home and watched this Discovery Channel show, Class 224. I came home from Steak and Shake, I sprayed it down last, get a big ol' large 42-ounce shake, walk across the street and get a box of mini donuts from 7-Eleven, and I would drive home for 45 minutes,

00:10:57.000 this big ol' fat guy who, yeah, I worked out, but I was fat.

00:11:02.000 I didn't run, didn't PT, I just hit the gym.

00:11:05.000 So I'm driving home, turn the TV on, and what comes on is Discovery Channel Show, and that's where everything changed for me. 0.99

00:11:12.000 I was taking a shower, I walked out, heard these guys, and I watched the show, and it made me reflect big time on the piece of shit that I am, and I'm exactly what people said I was going to be. 0.98

00:11:24.000 So what was on this show that really struck home? 0.99

00:11:27.000 I saw these guys going in the water, so I was terrified of it.

00:11:31.000 I mean, I can't even express...

00:11:32.000 Have you ever had a big fear?

00:11:34.000 And I know a lot of fighters have fears and stuff like that, but they get over them. 0.96

00:11:38.000 But a lot of us have these fears that you just don't want to fucking face. 0.79

00:11:43.000 And I have a lot of them. 0.97

00:11:44.000 I had a lot of them.

00:11:45.000 And that's what created the person who's in front of you today.

00:11:48.000 And we'll get into that. 0.98

00:11:50.000 But just a scared bitch is what I was. 1.00

00:11:53.000 But I was watching these guys going through Hell Week, Class 224. And these guys ringing the bell, quitting, dropping their helmet down, rolling out. 0.98

00:12:01.000 A lot of guys just leaving.

00:12:03.000 And it made me reflect on my fears, my insecurities. 0.57

00:12:08.000 And I saw real men, what I thought were real men who were staying, who were overcoming adversity, who were overcoming all these different things that I had blamed so many fucking people in my life, my dad, my mom for not being there.

00:12:22.000 When I was 14 years old, my mom was going to get remarried to this great guy. 0.94

00:12:26.000 He got murdered.

00:12:28.000 And then I moved back to a small town in Brazil and everybody was to blame.

00:12:33.000 My learning disability, my skin color, you know, me being, everything. 0.97

00:12:38.000 And so I sat there for a while and I was like, man, I gotta fucking, I gotta, no one's gonna fucking come to help me. 0.96

00:12:45.000 No one's gonna fucking come to help me. 0.99

00:12:46.000 It's fucking me against me, period. 0.99

00:12:49.000 And so I had the man up, and I said, the first thing I started doing is facing every fucking fear I have. 1.00

00:12:54.000 No matter what the fuck it is, man. 0.99

00:12:57.000 And these things would keep me up. 1.00

00:12:58.000 And no one, people who are hearing this shit, they will never really understand and grasp when you face these things and so many things, how they keep you up and haunt you at night. 0.98

00:13:08.000 I think there's a lot of people out there that know what you're talking about. 0.99

00:13:11.000 I mean, and so that's what it did.

00:13:14.000 I had two options. 0.65

00:13:16.000 To either be that 300 pound guy who sprayed for cockroaches and made a thousand dollars a month, And at 24 years old knowing when I'm 50 fucking years old I can reflect on this and think about what guy I never became or I can totally just sack it up and fail and fail and fail until I succeed. 0.66

00:13:36.000 So I started calling recruiters up. 0.98

00:13:38.000 I said I'm gonna go be a fucking Navy SEAL. And every recruiter, so there's a weight and height limit to get in the military. 0.98

00:13:46.000 And I was six foot one and 297. And I had prior service, which was a big deal.

00:13:52.000 So I called all these recruiters up and all of them said, hey, how tall are you?

00:13:55.000 Blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:13:55.000 They got into conversation to see if I was even qualified.

00:13:58.000 And by the time I got to my weight, phone would hang up pretty much like, hey, you know what?

00:14:02.000 Call somebody else, you know, try to get in the reserves.

00:14:05.000 So I tried to get in the reserves.

00:14:07.000 And I called this guy named Steven Salgio, a recruiter up.

00:14:09.000 And he said, hey, come on in.

00:14:11.000 He saw me, put me through the weight standard, all this other stuff, and to get into the class I had to get into, I had to lose 106 pounds in less than three months. 0.99

00:14:19.000 So, I was like, fuck that, I can't do that. 0.98

00:14:22.000 I grabbed my chocolate milkshake and went back to Ecolab. 1.00

00:14:24.000 I'm going back to work, man.

00:14:26.000 This is my life.

00:14:28.000 So, in this job, you're looking for cockroaches, looking for rodents and stuff like that, and this next morning, or this next night, I went to work, and I don't like cockroaches too much.

00:14:40.000 I hit the mother load of cockroaches, and this restaurant got full of cockroaches and rodents and everything else, and I sat there and said, this is my life.

00:14:49.000 I said, this is my life. 1.00

00:14:51.000 You are exactly who the fuck, this is it. 0.99

00:14:54.000 And I said, this ain't gonna be it for me. 0.99

00:14:57.000 So, in that restaurant, I quit my job, left my canister in that restaurant, my spray canister, got back in my Ecolab truck, and I went home.

00:15:07.000 And I started working out like somebody, I became the most obsessed person on the planet Earth.

00:15:13.000 And I was basically I had to invent a guy that didn't exist. 1.00

00:15:20.000 I had to invent a guy that can take any pain, any suffering, any kind of judgment, be called nigger, be called whatever the fuck in the world and be able to stand in the fucking room and say, go fuck yourself. 1.00

00:15:29.000 I had to build this callous mind and I built it through suffering. 1.00

00:15:34.000 I built it through downright fucking just crushing myself. 1.00

00:15:37.000 If it was raining outside at 3 o'clock in the fucking morning, if it was snowing, The first instinct is don't go out there and do shit. 1.00

00:15:43.000 My instinct was, we gotta fucking go out there. 0.99

00:15:47.000 Anything that was fucking horrible in my life that I would normally say no, that was inhumane to most people, I had to go do it. 0.97

00:15:56.000 And I started callusing my mind at this point in my life. 0.92

00:16:00.000 And I lost the weight.

00:16:02.000 I lost the weight and I went back to recruiter.

00:16:04.000 I got into that class.

00:16:06.000 And I went through three Navy SEAL Hell Weeks in one year.

00:16:10.000 Only got to ever be in three Hell Weeks in one year, to my knowledge.

00:16:13.000 The first one I didn't make it through.

00:16:15.000 The next two I did.

00:16:16.000 And I didn't stop anymore from there. 1.00

00:16:22.000 And I started realizing through this process, That the fucking mind is what you created. 0.99

00:16:29.000 And I started opening different doors that I didn't think were even there, that I didn't think even existed. 0.99

00:16:34.000 And the more doors opened up, the more I started realizing that my potential is damn near endless.

00:16:40.000 And it changed my whole mindset.

00:16:43.000 So I went from David Goggins and I created Goggins.

00:16:47.000 And that journey is a priceless journey that is hard for me to even explain to people because it sounds so quick and easy.

00:16:53.000 Like, I lost this weight and I went through three hell weeks, I went to Ranger School, went to Delta Force, Lexington, whatever it is.

00:16:59.000 It was brutal. 0.97

00:17:00.000 It's a brutal journey every fucking day and everybody goes, well, are you happy? 0.99

00:17:05.000 If anybody knows my life story, and I'll try to give you just a snippet of it, where I'm at today is in front of Joe Rogan telling you my life. 0.97

00:17:12.000 To get through where I became, to get through where I'm at now, there's nothing but pride I have for myself that I can't really show people.

00:17:21.000 Because I have this face.

00:17:22.000 I have this face that they see like, are you happy?

00:17:25.000 What's wrong with you?

00:17:26.000 I'm driven.

00:17:27.000 I'm obsessed and that's what you see.

00:17:30.000 That's it.

00:17:31.000 People need to hear this story.

00:17:33.000 This is an exciting story for people because there's a lot of people out there that feel trapped and they feel stuck and they feel like they can't do anything and this is who they are.

00:17:41.000 You're a guy who felt that exact same way but figured out how to not be that person and be a person that you would admire.

00:17:49.000 How did you, what were the first steps?

00:17:51.000 Like, you had some slips before, right?

00:17:54.000 Because you quit because of the water thing, but then when you went back the second time and you decided you're going to lose all that weight and you quit that job, Was it just straight forward from there or were there some days where you just failed and then you picked it back up again?

00:18:08.000 So my first run when I decided to lose the weight I was like I said 297 I was about 32 percent body fat and I went my idea was to run four miles for my first run I didn't know how bad it's gonna fucking hurt me I used to run before I was fat and I was like fuck it I can do this I ran a quarter mile and walked home I walked home and sat on my couch and cried. 0.99

00:18:30.000 I went to my mom's house who was about maybe 20 minutes down the road and cried and get in her couch and said, man, I can't fucking do this shit. 0.99

00:18:37.000 I don't know what I'm going to do. 0.99

00:18:39.000 I just got somebody pregnant. 1.00

00:18:42.000 My life was just fucked. 0.99

00:18:43.000 I was making $1,000 a month. 0.97

00:18:44.000 My rent was $8,000 a month. 0.99

00:18:46.000 And my mom just kept fucking with me. 1.00

00:18:49.000 And kept fucking, you're not good enough, man. 1.00

00:18:50.000 This isn't for you, man. 1.00

00:18:51.000 These guys are the best motherfuckers on the planet Earth. 1.00

00:18:53.000 You're not that. 1.00

00:18:55.000 And, um...

00:18:57.000 What it was, and it's kind of funny, I was obsessed with Rocky.

00:19:02.000 Rocky 1, in particular. 0.99

00:19:05.000 And when I was a kid, I'd come home every day and I'd watch this fucking show Rocky. 0.97

00:19:09.000 And I would fast forward with the little VHS tapes to round 14. Round 14 fucked me up like nobody's business. 0.99

00:19:19.000 Why? 0.80

00:19:19.000 The song came on. 0.80

00:19:20.000 When I bought the pull-up record, I listened to the song for 17 hours.

00:19:23.000 It's 2 minutes and 13 seconds.

00:19:26.000 And I'm able to visualize and dream like nobody's business.

00:19:32.000 And I know that I can create a vision that many people can't.

00:19:36.000 And I work for it. 0.99

00:19:38.000 So the vision I had was when Apollo Creed beat the fucking shit out of Rocky. 1.00

00:19:42.000 Beat the shit out of him. 1.00

00:19:43.000 He kept fighting. 1.00

00:19:45.000 He was a dumb fighter. 1.00

00:19:47.000 Couldn't read. 1.00

00:19:48.000 Couldn't fuck. 1.00

00:19:48.000 That was me. 1.00

00:19:49.000 Couldn't write.

00:19:49.000 Couldn't read.

00:19:50.000 Just punchy.

00:19:52.000 Everything about him. 0.98

00:19:54.000 And Apollo beat the shit out of him. 0.99

00:19:55.000 He was in that corner, and everybody was saying, stay the fuck down. 0.99

00:19:59.000 And him getting up, him getting up, Apollo Creed raises his arms up in the fucking air, turned around, thought he won the fight. 0.98

00:20:06.000 He turns around and sees this guy getting up, and it was the face of Apollo Creed that changed my life. 0.95

00:20:12.000 The face of Apollo Creed. 0.99

00:20:14.000 It was like, just by that motherfucker getting up, not winning, just by him getting the fuck up, Apollo Creed was his champ, he was the best. 0.99

00:20:24.000 Rocky had taken his soul. 1.00

00:20:26.000 Had literally taken his soul. 1.00

00:20:28.000 His head goes down, he looks at him like, what the fuck are you? 1.00

00:20:32.000 I wanted to be that. 1.00

00:20:33.000 Not Rocky.

00:20:35.000 I wanted to be the guy that people looked at.

00:20:37.000 I don't care if you liked me or didn't like, I don't care. 1.00

00:20:39.000 But I said, this motherfucker is going to keep coming after whatever the fuck is in front of him. 1.00

00:20:45.000 I wanted that. 1.00

00:20:46.000 I wanted that.

00:20:47.000 I wanted that.

00:20:48.000 Worse than anything in the world. 1.00

00:20:51.000 So, that is, I kept picturing me falling down and getting up and every motherfucker that called me nigger, I was dumped, even myself. 0.99

00:21:01.000 Even myself, I wanted to feel something besides defeat. 0.99

00:21:06.000 I wanted to just go to distance.

00:21:08.000 And that going to distance pushed me to a point of where now I go way past the distance.

00:21:14.000 So you go the first day, you run a quarter mile, and then you walk back home, and you're upset.

00:21:20.000 How do you move forward?

00:21:21.000 So basically what I did was I came home, and I had a talking milkshake.

00:21:27.000 I sat down, and I gave up. 0.97

00:21:29.000 I said this ain't gonna fucking happen. 0.99

00:21:30.000 I could lose 106 pounds and I can't even go a quarter of a fucking mile. 1.00

00:21:36.000 I started being able to take negative shit and be happy. 0.99

00:21:42.000 And this whole, I say what if a lot, it sounds corny and it sounds weak, but it's true. 0.99

00:21:49.000 One of the recruiters said, there's not many black Navy SEALs.

00:21:52.000 As a matter of fact, I was the 36th African American SEAL in history.

00:21:55.000 Over seven years. 0.99

00:21:57.000 Because of the fucking water, you know? 0.99

00:21:59.000 I mean, people get mad at me. 1.00

00:22:00.000 It's fucking true. 0.99

00:22:01.000 Just get over it. 1.00

00:22:02.000 And so, I was like, man, what story would it be if my fucking fat, dumb, lying to be friends with people, insecure ass, can overcome this shit? 1.00

00:22:17.000 And that what-if mentality, that dreamer mentality just would always fuel me. 1.00

00:22:23.000 It would just fuel me.

00:22:24.000 Man, what if I can be a SEAL, man? 0.99

00:22:27.000 What if I can go from running a quarter of a fucking mile? 0.99

00:22:29.000 Now I run 205 miles. 0.99

00:22:32.000 What if I can go?

00:22:34.000 Just what if I can go?

00:22:35.000 And how would that feel if I'm graduating?

00:22:38.000 Because I don't forget at the graduation thing I was talking about, 224, like the video I sat down and watched.

00:22:43.000 This command officer stood up and he said to the graduation guys who are graduating buds, like 18 of them, he said, we live in a society where mediocrity is often rewarded.

00:22:53.000 And he went on to say something about these men detest mediocrity.

00:22:57.000 And I wanted to be a man that detests mediocrity. 1.00

00:23:01.000 It got me in a lot of trouble in the SEAL teams and going forward in my life because I just, I started looking down on people for not going hard as fucking shit. 0.98

00:23:10.000 And I started to create different things but that's for a different day. 0.98

00:23:14.000 But I just believe that, you know, my whole mind changed.

00:23:17.000 That is a problem that a lot of people who work hard do have.

00:23:20.000 You get angry at people who don't work hard to the point where you, you know, you want to insult them.

00:23:25.000 You want to smack them.

00:23:27.000 And it's really because you're scared of seeing that in yourself.

00:23:30.000 Yeah, that's probably the truth.

00:23:32.000 That's probably the truth.

00:23:34.000 So, I guess a lot of times in my life I would see people and it probably was a direct reflection of who I was.

00:23:40.000 And I would get mad at them, but in reflection it's probably just getting mad at myself.

00:23:44.000 Yeah, that's for me, 100%.

00:23:45.000 When I see people that are half-assed and things, I get terrified of seeing that in myself and I get mad at them. 0.99

00:23:51.000 Right.

00:23:51.000 And it's not a good way to handle it.

00:23:55.000 No.

00:23:55.000 You know, but it's natural because you're just terrified of seeing that trait.

00:23:59.000 Right.

00:23:59.000 And it cost me.

00:24:00.000 So you come back.

00:24:01.000 Mm-hmm.

00:24:02.000 You do the quarter mile, you walk back home, how do you regroup?

00:24:06.000 So what I did, I sat down there and I put Rocky in.

00:24:09.000 I got my milkshake put Rocky.

00:24:11.000 I said, you know what?

00:24:11.000 I was big time in Rocky and Platoon.

00:24:14.000 Why Platoon?

00:24:16.000 I love to see people who were getting beat down.

00:24:19.000 And there's scenes.

00:24:21.000 There's scenes that just drove me.

00:24:23.000 And people in my Hell Weeks, you know, I was in three of them, they'd always hear me singing these songs.

00:24:27.000 These songs, humming these songs in torturous situations. 0.98

00:24:31.000 When everybody's quitting this fucking code, I would be somewhere gone. 1.00

00:24:37.000 Somewhere fucking gone, somewhere fucking dark as shit. 1.00

00:24:39.000 There's a scene in the platoon where Elias, when Barnes shoots Elias, and you know, they think Elias is dead, and the choppers are taking off, and Charlie Sheen's asking, you know, Tom Berenger, where's Elias? 1.00

00:24:53.000 Where's Elias, William Dafoe?

00:24:54.000 Oh, I found him back there dead somewhere. 0.99

00:24:57.000 And through the woods, the Viet Cong is chasing Elias through the woods and they're shooting him in his fucking back. 1.00

00:25:02.000 And all he wants to do is get to the fucking chopper. 1.00

00:25:04.000 He's getting shot in his back. 1.00

00:25:05.000 He's getting up.

00:25:06.000 He's getting shot in his back.

00:25:07.000 And you see this guy just fighting.

00:25:07.000 He's getting up.

00:25:10.000 I love the fucking guy who just fucking fights. 1.00

00:25:13.000 And so I put these things in as reminders that you're going to have to fucking suffer, man. 1.00

00:25:19.000 This fucking.25, man, this is... 1.00

00:25:21.000 Man, you're going to have to fucking suffer to go from this fat... 1.00

00:25:27.000 Insecure motherfucker to one of the best guys on the planet Earth. 1.00

00:25:30.000 This journey is going to take something that is going to be incomprehensible to most people. 0.99

00:25:36.000 And these different visualizations, how I visualize them in my self-talk, it became so nasty and dirty that I almost liked the fact that I went.25. 0.98

00:25:47.000 So it became from being defeated to like, man, all right, motherfucker, maybe, you know, maybe tomorrow we can go 0.75. 0.98

00:25:54.000 You know, it just became this different mindset. 0.99

00:25:56.000 I turned negatives into positives.

00:25:58.000 So I would take it like, who would even think about doing this? 1.00

00:26:02.000 So I would sit on my couch saying, who at 297 who can't fucking swim that great, who's scared of the fucking water, would have the fucking balls? 1.00

00:26:09.000 Who had the balls to fucking man up, quit a job, and go and just put everything on himself? 0.99

00:26:16.000 So it's how I start talking to myself and put myself in a whole different category and that would fuel me the next day and I just kept using that as fuel and fuel. 1.00

00:26:24.000 No one would do this shit. 1.00

00:26:26.000 No one would do this shit. 1.00

00:26:27.000 You're the baddest motherfucker around. 1.00

00:26:28.000 You're the baddest motherfucker I ever lived. 1.00

00:26:30.000 And I just kept fueling me with the right kind of message that I needed to hear that I was never telling myself. 1.00

00:26:36.000 And through time, it became reality to myself.

00:26:42.000 So, you start out on the first day, and then do you start running again the second day?

00:26:47.000 Yeah, the second day, I went right back after it again.

00:26:49.000 But I started realizing I can't run that far.

00:26:51.000 Right.

00:26:51.000 So what I did was I became damn near a professional cyclist with the miles I put on the bike.

00:26:56.000 So, I never...

00:26:58.000 Whenever I watch TV... I had to be doing something.

00:27:01.000 So I was riding a bike.

00:27:02.000 I rode a bike a lot.

00:27:04.000 To lose the first initial kind of weight because my bones were just hurting so bad.

00:27:08.000 My body was just broken.

00:27:09.000 And I learned to get over that also.

00:27:11.000 And I tried to swim a lot.

00:27:12.000 I wasn't a great swimmer, but putting fins on kind of equalized my body.

00:27:16.000 I wasn't so negative buoyant.

00:27:17.000 So I started finning a whole bunch.

00:27:19.000 And I spent hours in the pool.

00:27:21.000 Hours in the pool.

00:27:22.000 Trying to get more and more comfortable.

00:27:23.000 Not because I was going underwater.

00:27:25.000 I was so scared of the water that I had to live in the water.

00:27:29.000 I had to become one with the water.

00:27:31.000 So going to the pool used to scare me.

00:27:33.000 So I went to the pool an awful, awful lot.

00:27:37.000 And then the bike got easier.

00:27:39.000 I was able to run more.

00:27:41.000 I went from like one mile.

00:27:43.000 One mile was a great accomplishment.

00:27:45.000 Two miles.

00:27:46.000 And then from two to three was a big one.

00:27:48.000 Then I went from three to six.

00:27:49.000 And then, like they have a warning order that they give people to get ready for buds.

00:27:54.000 And the whole thing was running six miles five days a week.

00:27:57.000 And that was my goal.

00:27:58.000 And so I just kept, I failed, I go back to scratch.

00:28:02.000 I used some positive motivation. 0.98

00:28:04.000 I had like one day where I was like fucking defeated. 0.95

00:28:07.000 But I started realizing this is part of the process. 0.98

00:28:09.000 This is part of the journey.

00:28:10.000 I had to realize this is part of my process.

00:28:12.000 Versus just saying, like I used to, I'm just not good enough. 1.00

00:28:16.000 If I'm not good enough, we always say that shit. 0.99

00:28:17.000 I'm just not good enough, and then we try something else. 0.99

00:28:19.000 I'm gonna fucking make myself good enough. 0.97

00:28:22.000 And that became my mentality. 0.98

00:28:23.000 I'm gonna make myself good enough.

00:28:26.000 And so I misunderstood a lot, but that's all it came down to.

00:28:30.000 I made myself good enough.

00:28:32.000 And the days I couldn't run that far, the next week, I would do two a days on the running. 0.75

00:28:40.000 If I ran a quarter of a mile, I'd wait a fucking couple hours, it'd haunt me, bother me, I'd try to run a half a mile next time. 0.76

00:28:46.000 Same day. 0.97

00:28:48.000 You can do more than this.

00:28:49.000 If I had to walk, I had to walk.

00:28:51.000 It just became just a process of grinding and grinding, and grinding's not even a good word for it.

00:28:56.000 It's not even a good word for it.

00:28:58.000 And just going further and further.

00:29:01.000 And then when I got through running, I'd go to the bike.

00:29:03.000 I'd go to the pool.

00:29:04.000 If I got tired somewhere, my legs were tired, I'd go to the gym.

00:29:08.000 And I developed this crazy workout where I was doing volume, like two, three hundred reps of very light weight.

00:29:16.000 People always say, how come you don't have any loose skin?

00:29:19.000 My workout routine in the gym became sick.

00:29:21.000 It became sick.

00:29:23.000 I was just doing two, three hundred reps, four hundred reps on like chest, just like for one simple exercise, the bench press.

00:29:31.000 And I rack it, get back on it, just rep it out, trying to burn as many calories as I can, build that muscle mass.

00:29:36.000 And I just became obsessed with it.

00:29:39.000 So when you're doing this, are you worried at all about repetitive stress injuries or the fact that your body's not conditioned for this?

00:29:45.000 And you're basically taking your body where you had abused it, and now you're forcing it to live like an elite athlete.

00:29:52.000 Right.

00:29:52.000 I didn't care.

00:29:53.000 I didn't know any better.

00:29:54.000 I didn't think about it. 0.99

00:29:56.000 I didn't know that working out that hard would fuck you up. 0.99

00:30:00.000 Did it fuck you up? 0.99

00:30:02.000 That's one reason why I went through three hell weeks. 0.99

00:30:02.000 Oh yeah. 0.99

00:30:05.000 I don't talk about it a lot, but the stress of my life getting to 24 caused me to have some serious psoas issues. 0.99

00:30:13.000 I didn't know anything about this shit. 0.98

00:30:14.000 The psoas muscle is what we use. 0.99

00:30:16.000 It's your hip flexor muscle.

00:30:17.000 And basically, under stress, it starts to tighten up.

00:30:20.000 And I stuttered from the time I was in third grade to the time I was in seventh grade.

00:30:25.000 White blotches on my skin. 0.97

00:30:27.000 I was a nutcase. 0.99

00:30:29.000 And so the insides of me are also getting fucked up. 0.99

00:30:33.000 So in this process, my psoas muscle got real tight to my T12. I can show you the bump in the back of my head after this show is over, but I started growing this fucking large tumor-looking bump in the back of my head from my body compressing. 0.97

00:30:49.000 So I'm 6'1", but my muscles were like 5'9".

00:30:52.000 Because I just started, just the muscle tightness for my psoas, going to my T12, I was just getting tighter, my quads, everything getting tired from just stress, just stress in my life.

00:31:03.000 So the more I stressed my body with the workouts, my lower body became out of balance.

00:31:09.000 So I had a bunch of stress fractures, a bunch of injuries going through BUDS, and how I got through BUDS was they gave me my third time, was my last time going through Hell Week, I basically put a black sock on at 4 o'clock in the morning and I would get duct tape.

00:31:23.000 I had numerous stress fractures on both of my legs because my body was literally like coming in on itself.

00:31:31.000 And my legs were like, I was pronating it really bad and putting stress on my shins.

00:31:37.000 And so I would put duct tape.

00:31:38.000 I would duct tape my feet and I would show you the top of them where I have pressure ulcers that were the size of quarters.

00:31:44.000 From, you know, how the ankle joint, so the foot goes to the shin, and how you move this, where the tape was so tight, it just created a nice ulcer right there.

00:31:55.000 And I just kept going through it.

00:31:59.000 So you just used that tape to just support your ankles?

00:32:01.000 Right, so I basically cast myself, and for the first 30-45 minutes the pain was excruciating, but then it would go numb.

00:32:09.000 And I would go numb, and that's how I got through.

00:32:12.000 Wow!

00:32:14.000 Did that do any long-term damage?

00:32:17.000 Yeah, I've been out for five years.

00:32:19.000 So I retired from...

00:32:20.000 I did 21 years in the military.

00:32:21.000 I did time in the Air Force and I did about 16 years in the Navy.

00:32:24.000 How old are you?

00:32:25.000 43. You look like you're 30. That's good.

00:32:28.000 That's good.

00:32:29.000 You look very young for your age.

00:32:31.000 Whenever I'm stressed, I get after it.

00:32:34.000 I fix what's ever bothering me.

00:32:38.000 Basically, over the last five years, everything I've done in my life, I did it being very unhealthy.

00:32:44.000 I never talked about it.

00:32:45.000 I just kept going.

00:32:47.000 And it cost me pretty much, I was choking my insides out.

00:32:51.000 Adrenal issues, tons of adrenal issues, thyroid issues, anything with the endocrine system pretty much shut down on me.

00:32:57.000 My organs were pretty much shutting down.

00:32:59.000 And I went from a guy who could run 205 miles to a guy who couldn't get out of bed.

00:33:03.000 And the doctors were trying to search what was wrong.

00:33:05.000 That's why I figured out the psoas muscle.

00:33:07.000 No one figured it out.

00:33:08.000 And I hit it by accident.

00:33:11.000 So, I've missed two days of stretching out in five years. 0.99

00:33:15.000 And so what happened was all the shit I did to myself, the stress I was under, physical, mental, all kind of shit, it just choked me out from the inside. 0.99

00:33:25.000 And doctors put me on all kinds of medication. 0.99

00:33:28.000 And the medication started doing the exact opposite. 1.00

00:33:30.000 Like what kind of shit? 0.99

00:33:31.000 I was on DHEA. I was on some different things for my estrogen, different things for my... 1.00

00:33:39.000 I was on anything to do with your endocrine system.

00:33:43.000 Thyroid medicine. 0.99

00:33:46.000 Good God, I was on cortisol, all kind of shit to get my stuff in. 0.96

00:33:51.000 I had like this lump in my throat from like the heart was always... 0.98

00:33:54.000 I couldn't run down the street.

00:33:56.000 My body was just jacked up.

00:33:58.000 Couldn't sleep.

00:33:59.000 My whole body was just down, shutting down. 0.99

00:34:01.000 I could give you a lot more than that, but just to give you an example, I was fucking dying. 0.98

00:34:04.000 And so I couldn't do anything. 0.99

00:34:06.000 I went from a guy who was this guy to a guy who can't do shit. 0.99

00:34:10.000 And the doctor was like, I don't know what's wrong with you, man. 0.99

00:34:11.000 You know, your labs are this.

00:34:13.000 Is it PTSD? What's going on?

00:34:15.000 I knew it wasn't any of that shit. 0.99

00:34:17.000 So I sat in the bed one day and I realized, man, my life is over. 0.99

00:34:20.000 This is it.

00:34:21.000 But it gave me time to reflect on everything I had accomplished.

00:34:25.000 I've never taken time to reflect on the kid I was to the man I am now.

00:34:31.000 So honestly, the time I wasn't working out, it was the best time of my life because I got a chance to really reflect back and be proud of who I became.

00:34:38.000 I never took time to do that.

00:34:40.000 It was like one after another. 1.00

00:34:42.000 Get the fuck after it. 1.00

00:34:43.000 Get after it. 1.00

00:34:44.000 Get after it. 1.00

00:34:44.000 You ain't good enough, motherfucker. 1.00

00:34:45.000 Get after it. 1.00

00:34:47.000 And I got halted.

00:34:49.000 So anyway, this process went on for a while.

00:34:52.000 This isn't working.

00:34:52.000 More medication.

00:34:53.000 That's not working.

00:34:54.000 No doctor can figure it out. 1.00

00:34:56.000 I'm like, fuck it. 1.00

00:34:57.000 I saw this doc about eight years before this happened. 1.00

00:35:01.000 And he was like, hey, man, you're so fucking tight. 0.79

00:35:03.000 I've never seen anybody in my life as tight as you. 0.98

00:35:06.000 You need 50,000 hours of stretching.

00:35:08.000 He used to throw out some crazy number.

00:35:11.000 I was like, whatever.

00:35:12.000 Stretching, you know, stretch.

00:35:13.000 Stretching's bad for you.

00:35:15.000 You thought stretching was bad for you?

00:35:17.000 Yeah, stress is bad for you, man. 1.00

00:35:18.000 I read some article, you know, man, fuck stretching, man. 1.00

00:35:18.000 Why did you think that? 1.00

00:35:23.000 I worked out so hard.

00:35:25.000 I didn't have time to stretch, man.

00:35:26.000 I was running 150 miles a week.

00:35:28.000 I was biking to work, man.

00:35:29.000 I was getting after it, man.

00:35:30.000 I was working a full-time job.

00:35:32.000 And stretching and doing that.

00:35:34.000 So my body was literally getting tighter and tighter, not just from what I was doing.

00:35:38.000 Oh, because you ran this.

00:35:39.000 No, it wasn't that, man.

00:35:41.000 And so I said, you know what?

00:35:42.000 I'm going to try and stretch out. 0.77

00:35:44.000 So I don't do anything for like 10 minutes or, you know, I don't do no six-minute abs bullshit.

00:35:50.000 So I started stretching out one hour, hour and a half. 0.69

00:35:53.000 Long story short, man, I shaved my head almost every morning. 0.99

00:35:56.000 And that bump that was on the back of my fucking head, I started realizing it was shrinking for some fucking reason. 0.98

00:36:01.000 I don't know why, because I shaved my head back and I was like, it's getting smaller. 0.99

00:36:06.000 The smaller that bump got, the healthier I got.

00:36:09.000 The smile that bump got. 1.00

00:36:10.000 I was like, oh, hold up, motherfucker. 1.00

00:36:12.000 What's going on? 1.00

00:36:13.000 That's so weird.

00:36:13.000 My muscles started getting more and more stressed out, more and more relaxed.

00:36:16.000 And over a period of five years, I'm in the best shape of my damn life right now from stretching out. 0.96

00:36:22.000 Wow. 0.97

00:36:23.000 That's all it was.

00:36:23.000 I went from, like, I can't even count the medications I was on.

00:36:27.000 Now I'm on a very low-dose thyroid pill.

00:36:30.000 Period.

00:36:31.000 Do you ever do yoga?

00:36:32.000 All the time, man.

00:36:34.000 All the time.

00:36:35.000 And I... If I were to tell somebody one thing right now, man, that's so-ass muscle and getting that hip flexor opened up, because we're all stressed the fuck out.

00:36:45.000 It was so much worse than others.

00:36:47.000 It changed my life.

00:36:48.000 Yeah.

00:36:49.000 How do you say Nick Gregorius?

00:36:52.000 How do you say his last name?

00:36:53.000 The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt from England, the Greek fella. 1.00

00:36:58.000 He has a great quote about yoga.

00:37:00.000 He said, yoga is a martial art you do against yourself.

00:37:03.000 Yep.

00:37:04.000 It's a great way of putting it.

00:37:06.000 100%.

00:37:06.000 That's what it feels like when you're in there, right?

00:37:08.000 100%.

00:37:08.000 And so...

00:37:12.000 How many years ago was this?

00:37:13.000 It was five years ago where you couldn't do anything?

00:37:15.000 And how long was there a period where you couldn't work out at all?

00:37:18.000 There was about...

00:37:19.000 So I always tried to do something, but I couldn't run hardly at all.

00:37:22.000 I could run maybe half a mile, and all that heart shit would happen, and my heart would get afib, and all kind of stuff would happen.

00:37:29.000 And I started just stretching, and also I tried to do pull-ups every now and then, but everything was just... 0.86

00:37:34.000 I didn't have the energy.

00:37:35.000 I didn't have anything.

00:37:37.000 I mean, nothing was processing right for me.

00:37:39.000 Did you think that you had just broken your body because you pushed it too hard?

00:37:43.000 100%.

00:37:43.000 I sat back in that bed that night, and I had a lot of time to reflect.

00:37:47.000 I said, you know what?

00:37:48.000 I was actually kind of proud of myself in a very sick, twisted way.

00:37:53.000 Even though people don't understand it, I had to do what I had to do.

00:37:57.000 And I did it.

00:37:59.000 I didn't tell you how I got into ultra running.

00:38:02.000 You know, there's a lot of things that...

00:38:03.000 So, I pushed it extremely hard.

00:38:07.000 I went way beyond what I thought was capable.

00:38:11.000 Like my first ultra race I did, I was heavier.

00:38:14.000 I was in Iraq.

00:38:15.000 You know, the Marcus Luttrell Lone Survivor.

00:38:17.000 I was in Bud's.

00:38:18.000 I was in Three Hell Weeks, as you know, as I said a million times.

00:38:21.000 And I knew a lot of guys that died in the operation.

00:38:23.000 I was at Free Fall School with Morgan Luttrell, who was his twin brother, during the Operation Web Wings, where Marcus Luttrell was Lone Survivor.

00:38:31.000 I knew Marcus Trill well, and I was about 200 some odd pounds, and I didn't run hardly at all at this time.

00:38:38.000 I was a SEAL, but I was like a bodybuilder.

00:38:40.000 And I did an elliptical trainer 20 minutes on Sunday.

00:38:44.000 That's all I did.

00:38:45.000 That's all I did. 1.00

00:38:46.000 Fuck that cardio stuff. 1.00

00:38:47.000 I was never about it until this happened. 0.99

00:38:51.000 So that happened and I was like, man, I gotta find a way to raise money for these families.

00:38:55.000 So I Googled the...

00:38:56.000 I found a foundation, Special Operations Warrior Foundation, and I Googled the 10 hardest races in the world.

00:39:03.000 I knew nothing about ultra running.

00:39:05.000 The first I'd ever run was 20 miles at one time.

00:39:07.000 And so what came up was the Badwater 135. 135-mile run through Death Valley in the summertime.

00:39:14.000 I thought it was a fucking stage race. 0.99

00:39:16.000 I know people can run 135 miles at one time. 0.99

00:39:18.000 I had no idea it was even possible.

00:39:20.000 What do you mean a stage race?

00:39:20.000 Where you run like 20 miles, camp out, and then run 20 more until you get 135 miles.

00:39:26.000 Right.

00:39:27.000 So I wasn't an ultra runner.

00:39:28.000 Didn't know what an ultra runner was.

00:39:29.000 I called the race director up, Chris Costman of the Badwater.

00:39:32.000 And he said, are you an ultra runner?

00:39:35.000 And I was like, I don't know what that is.

00:39:37.000 He goes, have you run 100 miles in 24 hours or less?

00:39:40.000 I was like, no.

00:39:41.000 But I said, I'm a Navy SEAL. I was in three hell weeks.

00:39:44.000 I was a Ranger.

00:39:44.000 I gave him some resume.

00:39:45.000 He didn't give a shit. 0.99

00:39:47.000 He said, I don't care. 0.99

00:39:48.000 You got to qualify for my race.

00:39:50.000 And the deadline was up in two months for this Badwater race. 0.88

00:39:53.000 And basically, he said, there's two more races you can do to qualify.

00:39:57.000 And I might consider you in my race.

00:39:59.000 We select top 90 athletes in the world.

00:40:01.000 And you're not even an ultra runner.

00:40:02.000 But I like your calls.

00:40:03.000 I like what you're doing.

00:40:05.000 He said, I'll call him up on a Wednesday.

00:40:08.000 And he goes, there's a race on Saturday in San Diego, San Diego one day, where you run around a one mile track for 24 hours, so many miles you can get.

00:40:16.000 If you get 124 hours, I will consider you in my race. 0.98

00:40:20.000 I did the math, 14 some minute mile, fuck it, I can do that. 1.00

00:40:25.000 Dumb shit thinking, I'll tell you that right now. 1.00

00:40:27.000 It was rough. 1.00

00:40:28.000 The worst pain I've been in my entire life was this race. 1.00

00:40:31.000 So, I have my wife at the time, she's now my ex-wife. 0.99

00:40:34.000 We go to Walmart, get a blue lawn chair, rich crackers and mild plex.

00:40:38.000 That's what I'm gonna have for a 100 mile run.

00:40:40.000 So, show up at the start line of this race, It was the AUA National Championships.

00:40:46.000 It's like the best ultra runners compete against each other to see how many miles you can get in 24 hours.

00:40:52.000 And I'm this big bodybuilder looking guy with a shirt off.

00:40:55.000 How much did you weigh back then?

00:40:56.000 I would say I was at least 230. At least it may have been more.

00:41:01.000 Than jacked? 0.98

00:41:02.000 Yeah, I was ripped the fuck up. 0.99

00:41:04.000 Big old chest. 0.98

00:41:05.000 I was jacked up.

00:41:07.000 There's a picture of me.

00:41:08.000 You definitely didn't look like someone who could run 100 miles.

00:41:10.000 No, not at all.

00:41:11.000 So basically, I start running and I get to about mile 40, mile 50 and I'm feeling pretty good.

00:41:18.000 I get to mile 70 and it was the worst pain of my life.

00:41:25.000 I sat down in this blue lawn chair at mile 70 And the Ritz crackers after mile 20 became Ritz cracker balls.

00:41:33.000 I wasn't hydrating correctly.

00:41:34.000 I didn't know what to do.

00:41:35.000 I was drinking mileplex for my nutrition because I couldn't eat these Ritz crackers.

00:41:40.000 Had very minimal water, if any at all.

00:41:42.000 And I was just dying.

00:41:43.000 So I sat down in this blue lawn chair.

00:41:45.000 I was watching all these runners go around in this circle.

00:41:48.000 I was all dizzy and lightheaded.

00:41:49.000 Hadn't gone to the bathroom.

00:41:50.000 It's been about 12 hours.

00:41:51.000 I went 70 miles in about 12 hours, which is good. 1.00

00:41:54.000 And I looked at my ex-wife now, and I was like, I am fucked. 0.99

00:41:58.000 I started seeing like three of her. 1.00

00:42:00.000 And once my body stopped, my mind just went off.

00:42:04.000 And I had to go to the bathroom.

00:42:06.000 And the bathroom was like 20 feet away from me, if that.

00:42:09.000 And I couldn't.

00:42:10.000 And so I sat there and peed blood down my leg and started crapping up my back, and we had 30 miles to go.

00:42:16.000 And my feet were broken.

00:42:18.000 I was just in the worst shape.

00:42:20.000 Because once you stop running, Not running like that.

00:42:23.000 I mean, I hadn't run in almost a year.

00:42:25.000 I was just doing bodybuilding stuff in 20 minutes on an elliptical trainer.

00:42:29.000 No running at all? 0.99

00:42:31.000 I probably ran no shit, no shit, no more than 50 miles the whole year. 1.00

00:42:38.000 That wasn't my thing. 1.00

00:42:39.000 I wanted to be like Jack.

00:42:41.000 I didn't want to be cardio guy.

00:42:43.000 I wanted to be ripped, big Navy SEAL guy.

00:42:47.000 And the day before this race, it's funny, this guy named Joe Burns, who put me through my hell weeks, a SEAL guy, he's one of the hardest guys out there, He was in the gym the Friday before I did this race.

00:42:59.000 And he was doing a full body squats, dead lifts, power cleans. 1.00

00:43:02.000 I said, fuck it, man. 1.00

00:43:03.000 You know, he's the guy that approved me to do this race. 1.00

00:43:06.000 You know, he gave me the approval to go do this race and signed off on it. 0.71

00:43:10.000 So I'm in the gym.

00:43:11.000 I went in there and did a full body, hardcore squats, deadlifts, and everything with this guy.

00:43:16.000 Because I knew he was going to come watch me in this race.

00:43:20.000 So I've always been about, alright man, you're going to see me come in here and jack this weight, and tomorrow you're going to watch me do a 100 mile run.

00:43:27.000 What are you going to think about that?

00:43:28.000 So, basically, I paid for it.

00:43:31.000 So he came out there with my favorite thing, chocolate mini donuts, because he knew my story of my past life, and brought six mini donuts out there, and I had my hat pulled down, and at mile 70, man, it was torturous.

00:43:44.000 And with blood down my leg and 30 miles to go, I... Started reaching the cookie jars man.

00:43:52.000 I started pulling off all kind of stuff I reached in my mind and a lot of us when we have bad times in life even the hardest person where we forget how badass we are during that hard time I Have a thing where I take a couple seconds to reflect on hang on man You've been to been through this you've been through that you overcame this overcame that I don't ever close my mind to the fact that this can't be done and And I knew I had to get up.

00:44:17.000 I needed nutrition.

00:44:18.000 I needed to stop being dizzy.

00:44:18.000 I needed hydration.

00:44:21.000 So that's the first thing I did.

00:44:22.000 I didn't panic on it.

00:44:23.000 I had 30 more miles to go to get 100. I had to start about the process.

00:44:27.000 Slowly but surely I was able to stand up, and I was literally hobbling around this track, just walking.

00:44:33.000 No running at all.

00:44:34.000 I couldn't run.

00:44:35.000 My feet were in the worst pain.

00:44:36.000 This is the worst pain I've been in my entire life.

00:44:39.000 Nothing in any training is even comparable to this last 30 miles.

00:44:43.000 And what happened was, my ex-wife looked at me and she's like, man, we agreed I'm not gonna make the time.

00:44:50.000 I was going way too slow.

00:44:52.000 And at that time, at mile 81, Something clicked that I'll never probably be able to do again with my mind, body, spirit, soul, everything just connected. 0.94

00:45:01.000 And my mind knew I wasn't fucking around anymore.

00:45:04.000 It knew I wasn't going to quit. 1.00

00:45:05.000 It knew that guy was dead and buried and gone. 1.00

00:45:09.000 And I was going to die out here on this fucking Walmart for whatever reason why I was going to get through this motherfucker. 1.00

00:45:15.000 I didn't give a damn. 1.00

00:45:16.000 There was no fucking crowds. 0.99

00:45:18.000 There was no trophy at the end. 0.99

00:45:19.000 I wasn't even in a race in my mind.

00:45:22.000 It was nothing.

00:45:24.000 It wasn't about nothing.

00:45:25.000 There was no nothing. 0.99

00:45:26.000 It was a bunch of people who didn't know who the fuck I was. 0.99

00:45:28.000 It was me against me. 0.99

00:45:30.000 And I used all these different dark places to start bringing out light and just fucking going deeper and deeper. 0.93

00:45:36.000 Ended up running the next 20 miles. 0.94

00:45:38.000 I ran 101 miles.

00:45:40.000 And I ran the next 20 miles.

00:45:42.000 Ran.

00:45:43.000 At about a 10-30 pace.

00:45:45.000 And I did 101 miles in 18 hours and 56 minutes.

00:45:49.000 Sat back down that blue porta potty.

00:45:52.000 Now, my chair that I got from Walmart.

00:45:55.000 And that's when the body realized I was done.

00:45:59.000 And this great feeling came over me, but also the worst pain in my life. 1.00

00:46:03.000 That's when I took a humongous shit on myself. 1.00

00:46:06.000 Literally like a fucking log up my fucking back. 1.00

00:46:10.000 Pissed so much blood down. 1.00

00:46:11.000 And my wife was, she was a nurse.

00:46:14.000 And she was freaked out.

00:46:16.000 I couldn't get up.

00:46:17.000 I couldn't stand up.

00:46:17.000 She backed this Camry on the knoll of the grassy area I was at.

00:46:22.000 And we were both lifters at the time, so she was decently strong.

00:46:25.000 I put my arms around her neck.

00:46:27.000 She got me to the backseat of the car, let the windows down. 1.00

00:46:29.000 It kind of smelled like horrible shit. 0.99

00:46:31.000 And I had this poncho on it because it was November in San Diego, so I'm sitting there Jack Camry in the back of this car. 1.00

00:46:36.000 And she was terrified.

00:46:37.000 I need to get to the doctor.

00:46:38.000 I need to get to the doctor.

00:46:40.000 So I said, just take me home.

00:46:41.000 So we lived on the second story, or the second deck of this apartment complex in San Diego.

00:46:47.000 I got to the first deck, so I get out of the car and I could stand up, but with my arms around her neck.

00:46:52.000 So I was just leaning down because I was going to pass out.

00:46:55.000 I got to the first deck, went down.

00:46:58.000 Just couldn't stand up anymore.

00:47:00.000 Got around her neck.

00:47:01.000 Worked my way up the railing.

00:47:03.000 Got around her neck again.

00:47:06.000 Walked to the kitchen area, which was right in the front door.

00:47:08.000 I was laying on the puncture liner. 0.99

00:47:10.000 Crap was everywhere. 0.99

00:47:12.000 I managed. 0.99

00:47:13.000 She helped me manage to get into the tub. 1.00

00:47:16.000 And it was like dirt was coming out of my penis. 1.00

00:47:18.000 This looked horrible. 1.00

00:47:19.000 Just the grossest thing in the world.

00:47:21.000 It's the worst pain I can ever, ever, ever be in in my life.

00:47:25.000 And the craziest thing, I'll tell you a story because of this right now.

00:47:28.000 I'm not sadistic.

00:47:29.000 I'm not crazy.

00:47:29.000 People may think that.

00:47:30.000 They may want to put a title on me after hearing me because it makes them feel better. 0.99

00:47:35.000 Because they think, wow, this guy must be some special or just fucked up crazy dude. 0.99

00:47:39.000 No. 0.99

00:47:40.000 I'm a guy that came from nothing. 0.99

00:47:42.000 Anybody's capable of doing shit like this. 0.99

00:47:44.000 Anybody. 0.99

00:47:46.000 And I sat in that tub.

00:47:48.000 She put the water on me.

00:47:49.000 She called my mom up.

00:47:50.000 And my mom was dating a doctor at the time.

00:47:53.000 The doctor said, you need to get him to a hospital now.

00:47:56.000 She came back in. 0.99

00:47:57.000 All I wanted to do was call Chris Costman on the phone, the race director of Badwater, and said, I fucking did it. 0.99

00:48:01.000 So she said, I'm taking you to the doctor. 0.99

00:48:02.000 I said, no, let me sit here and enjoy this pain.

00:48:06.000 She said, what are you talking about?

00:48:08.000 I said, you know, I go, I need to go to the doctor.

00:48:10.000 I realized that.

00:48:11.000 But I never thought...

00:48:14.000 It was humanly possible to do what I did.

00:48:17.000 I went 70 miles, and at 70 miles, I was dead.

00:48:23.000 I was at 100% what I thought was 100%.

00:48:28.000 I went 31 more miles after being in the worst physical shape I've ever been in in my life.

00:48:36.000 And all the... 0.98

00:48:38.000 All that pain and suffering and thing was going through my fucking body as I sat in that tub and the waters hit me. 0.98

00:48:44.000 It was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment and I want to be numb. 1.00

00:48:50.000 I want people to give me drugs and to numb this fucking pain. 0.99

00:48:53.000 I wanted to... 1.00

00:48:54.000 I did this.

00:48:56.000 As crazy as it sounds, it was the most amazing moment of my entire life.

00:49:00.000 To overcome such...

00:49:02.000 To come from this kid...

00:49:04.000 Who was mentally tortured himself and was tortured.

00:49:07.000 It's all to this kid, to this guy now, who was able to overcome such amazing odds and obstacles.

00:49:13.000 And I called Chris Cosmo, the race director of Badwater, and he said, the idea of a 24-hour race is to run 24 hours.

00:49:21.000 You only ran 19. And he put doubt in my mind that he wouldn't let me into Badwater.

00:49:26.000 So a month later or so, about a month and a half later, I went to this race called the Hurt 100. It's a 100-mile race in Hawaii, 26,000 feet of colony.

00:49:34.000 That was all he said?

00:49:35.000 That's all he said.

00:49:37.000 That's so crazy. 0.99

00:49:38.000 I mean, he's a hardcore dude, but he didn't know how fucked up I was. 0.99

00:49:42.000 Right. 0.98

00:49:42.000 And he said, he didn't say no, I'm not going to let you in. 0.98

00:49:48.000 He put enough doubt in my mind to say, man, I've got to do more.

00:49:51.000 So, I was broken.

00:49:54.000 I was broken bad.

00:49:57.000 How long did it take you to recover physically?

00:49:59.000 The funniest thing about this, I don't tell this story very often.

00:50:01.000 I had signed up for, I'm getting to that answer, it's right now.

00:50:06.000 I went on deployment and me and my wife my mom signed up for the first Las Vegas marathon down the strip of Las Vegas and That incident happened so I ran a hundred miles before I ran a marathon Two weeks later roughly December 5th was this marathon that we all signed up for I couldn't walk I could not walk I was fucked up so Ten days or two weeks after this hundred mile in one race I did This

00:50:38.000 marathon December 5th in Las Vegas.

00:50:40.000 I said, you know, it's the first one I can't run Maybe I can walk with my mom So I tried to go out to this little knoll around our grassy area in San Diego I tried to run legs were broken. 0.95

00:50:50.000 I said fuck I can't even I'm jacked can't do shit So I said, you know, maybe I'll watch you guys do the marathon and I'll cheer you guys on whatever I said, I'll try to walk with my mom December 5th happened. 0.98

00:51:03.000 That gun went off. 1.00

00:51:05.000 2005, 14 days after, I broke myself off, and I qualified for the Boston Marathon.

00:51:12.000 I ran a.308.

00:51:16.000 That's crazy. 0.99

00:51:17.000 And what's funny about it, I know people here say this motherfucker, even when I tell you the story, I want to drop so many names. 0.99

00:51:24.000 Google it. 0.98

00:51:24.000 Look it up. 0.98

00:51:25.000 I don't give a fuck. 0.99

00:51:26.000 It almost seems like I'm making my own story up. 0.99

00:51:30.000 It does.

00:51:30.000 It almost seems like it to you?

00:51:32.000 If I were to hear somebody...

00:51:32.000 It does.

00:51:35.000 Let's say I listen to Joe Rogan's podcast. 0.99

00:51:38.000 I heard some black dude from fucking Brazil in the end talking about, this happened, this happened, three hell weeks, ran to school, ran 100 miles, broke my feet, broke my body. 1.00

00:51:46.000 I'm like, this mother, he's the biggest fucking liar on the planet. 1.00

00:51:49.000 Ain't nobody doing that shit. 1.00

00:51:50.000 See, even when I tell him my story, It almost sounds like some made-up shit. 1.00

00:51:55.000 What sounds so crazy is you ran 100 miles before you ever ran a marathon. 0.99

00:51:59.000 Then you didn't run again at all, and you still qualified for the Boston Marathon.

00:52:03.000 So you ran a.308 for the first marathon you ever did, two weeks after you ran 100 miles with no training and nothing in between.

00:52:13.000 But it gets better than that.

00:52:15.000 You can see my training log that I actually posted up.

00:52:18.000 So that's when I started training for the Hurt 100. So basically what happened was after that I had about four weeks.

00:52:28.000 What did it feel like to run that 308 if you could barely walk?

00:52:32.000 When that gun went off, something went off in my head, and I didn't feel that much pain at all.

00:52:39.000 Afterwards, I did, but something happened where I was like, the gun went off, and that thing came back.

00:52:46.000 Like, alright man, what if?

00:52:50.000 Because I wanted to qualify for Boston.

00:52:52.000 That was my goal.

00:52:53.000 But I was jacked up, you know?

00:52:56.000 And I didn't run as much as I should have at all over my Iraq training.

00:53:01.000 I hit the weights.

00:53:03.000 But my goal was when I signed up for it a year early, I want to qualify for Boston, which was a 310.59.

00:53:11.000 And I was like, what if you can qualify for Boston, man?

00:53:14.000 So what helped me out, I just ran 101 miles. 0.97

00:53:19.000 What the fuck is 26 miles to me now? 0.68

00:53:21.000 So the mindset going into it was like, I ran 75 more miles than this. 0.99

00:53:27.000 So I used it to my advantage.

00:53:29.000 So after that happened, I ran with my feet pretty much broken.

00:53:32.000 I would go to the physical therapist and they had this compression tape.

00:53:37.000 Compression tape helped because my feet were pretty bad off.

00:53:40.000 And I would run 70, 80, 100 mile weeks.

00:53:43.000 And then I went to the Hurt 100, racing Hawaii, 26,000 feet of climbing over 100 miles.

00:53:50.000 Probably one of the top five hardest 100 mile races in the world.

00:53:53.000 I wasn't even a real runner.

00:53:56.000 I had banked a lot of miles by the last two and a half, about two months.

00:54:00.000 But I wasn't a runner.

00:54:02.000 Went out there and got through the race.

00:54:04.000 Did it in 33 hours.

00:54:05.000 Was the ninth place finisher.

00:54:06.000 Not many people finished that year.

00:54:09.000 And I qualified for Badwater and got in.

00:54:12.000 And I went on to lose weight and train hard.

00:54:15.000 And I got fifth my first year and went back my second year and got third.

00:54:18.000 When you say you lost weight, what were you eventually weighing?

00:54:22.000 So I went to the race about 190, 195. So you lost quite a bit from your bodybuilding time.

00:54:27.000 Right.

00:54:27.000 That's over a short period of time.

00:54:29.000 Right.

00:54:29.000 How did you lose all that weight?

00:54:30.000 Once again, I just worked out hard.

00:54:32.000 I stopped taking my protein so much.

00:54:35.000 I got off.

00:54:36.000 I was on this stuff called Nitro Tech.

00:54:39.000 And I got off all the protein stuff.

00:54:41.000 I just started.

00:54:42.000 I stopped hitting the weights so hard. 0.98

00:54:44.000 And I just became a running fool. 0.98

00:54:47.000 Became the Black Forest Gump, man, pretty much. 0.99

00:54:50.000 Pretty simple, man.

00:54:51.000 That's what happened.

00:54:52.000 Now, when you say you were using compression tape on your feet and that your feet were jacked up, what was the extent of the injuries?

00:54:57.000 So basically, because of my pronation that I never figured out, because of my psoas muscles, I always had issues with stretch fractures, shin splints.

00:55:07.000 So I put a lot of pressure on the inside of my ankles.

00:55:10.000 And so there's this tendon that goes up the back side of your, I don't know if it's your fibula, on the back side of that little bone, on the back side of your foot.

00:55:21.000 It goes right up the side of that, right alongside that bone.

00:55:24.000 And that thing was just so flared up on both sides that even this flexing my foot was just killing me.

00:55:31.000 So I realized when you cast that thing up, casting my feet always helped me out because it locked my foot into a position that wouldn't make me pronate as much.

00:55:41.000 So between the casting of that, and if you watched the Badwater video of 2006, You'll see me crossing the finish line with this compression tape literally like flying on my ankles because I went to the race with compression tape on my ankles.

00:55:56.000 And so basically, I have that on my, you know, on my ankles.

00:56:01.000 I had inserts in my, you know, in my shoes and also this wedge.

00:56:06.000 On the back heel of my left foot.

00:56:08.000 So then it would keep me from pronating that heel so much.

00:56:11.000 So I had all that on just to go around.

00:56:13.000 And I ran my ass off and went to Badwater 2006 with compression tape on my feet and walked a lot.

00:56:23.000 But I got third place.

00:56:24.000 Do you always run with regular running shoes?

00:56:26.000 I do.

00:56:27.000 Yeah, so now I don't have those issues anymore.

00:56:29.000 All the stretching has opened my body up to how it should have been.

00:56:33.000 So my alignment is pretty good.

00:56:35.000 It's not perfect.

00:56:36.000 So now I just run in regular running shoes now.

00:56:38.000 No more compression tape, no more none of that stuff.

00:56:40.000 So if you see now, if you look down there, you'll see the compression tape.

00:56:44.000 And you'll see my ex-wife here in a second taking the compression tape off of me. 1.00

00:56:48.000 She's doing it right now.

00:56:50.000 See it right now?

00:56:51.000 Yeah.

00:56:51.000 See the tape?

00:56:52.000 Yeah.

00:56:53.000 So that's the tape right there that I had to wear every day of my life to run.

00:56:56.000 Wow. 0.93

00:56:56.000 So as you see the story may be kind of unbelievable, but there's some proof right there So that's how I was so painful Yeah, I was pretty fucked up as you see right now. 0.93

00:57:07.000 I'm trying to get oh man.

00:57:08.000 Yeah, I'm pretty destroyed right there What is the most amount of miles you've ever run at one time?

00:57:15.000 Yeah 205 and 39 hours Wow non-stop Yeah, I've had quite a few people on, I've met quite a few people now over the last year or so that have run Ultras.

00:57:28.000 Courtney DeWalter, you know who she is?

00:57:30.000 She won the Moab 240. She beat all the men by 22 miles, something like that.

00:57:39.000 Some crazy thing.

00:57:40.000 She was first place winner.

00:57:41.000 She beat everybody else. 0.99

00:57:42.000 Second place winner.

00:57:43.000 And with her, I mean, you would never believe it.

00:57:47.000 When you talk to her, she seems so normal.

00:57:49.000 She drinks beer and eats nachos and eats candy. 0.91

00:57:53.000 That's ultra winner, man. 1.00

00:57:54.000 She's just silly and she's fun. 0.99

00:57:56.000 There's no demon there. 1.00

00:57:58.000 I'm like waiting to meet a demon.

00:58:00.000 I'm like, where's your demon?

00:58:02.000 How are you getting through that?

00:58:03.000 Her demon's a quiet demon.

00:58:06.000 It's there.

00:58:07.000 It has to be there.

00:58:07.000 There's something there.

00:58:08.000 It has to be.

00:58:09.000 There's no other people, everybody I know that can do that has a demon. 0.99

00:58:13.000 A lot of us don't want to admit to shit. 1.00

00:58:15.000 We got them. 1.00

00:58:16.000 Oh, 100%.

00:58:17.000 It has to be.

00:58:18.000 So when you do this and you qualify and you do that race in Hawaii, they just let you in after that?

00:58:28.000 No, so the race in Hawaii, yeah, I actually called the race director up and there wasn't like a big time, like I didn't have a 100 mile race I believe I had.

00:58:37.000 So you had a 100 mile, you did the Boston Marathon, or you did the Vegas Marathon?

00:58:42.000 Yeah, so I did the 101 miles, the Vegas Marathon, went to Hurt 100, did that 100 miler.

00:58:48.000 And all this is in a very short amount of time.

00:58:50.000 Yeah, so November was the first 100 miler.

00:58:53.000 December was the 26th miler in Las Vegas.

00:58:57.000 January...

00:58:58.000 Was the next hundred mile in Hawaii. 0.99

00:59:00.000 Do you know how fucking crazy that is? 0.94

00:59:01.000 Like, say, if I was your friend and I called you up on October 20th, and I'd go, hey man, how many times did you run? 0.99

00:59:06.000 You're like, ah, run every now and then.

00:59:07.000 You want to see something crazy?

00:59:08.000 I don't know if you can pull it up or not, but if you can pull up my race schedule for 2007, just pull up David Goggin's race results.

00:59:13.000 You're going to see something real crazy in a second.

00:59:16.000 This is going to...

00:59:17.000 And I've got to show you proof, because why...

00:59:19.000 I know my story doesn't make any sense, but just look at the dates of these races.

00:59:24.000 And we're going to show it to you in a second.

00:59:27.000 Just look at the 100 miles and 50 miles back-to-back weekends, how many weekends there were between races.

00:59:33.000 So if you look right here, you can't really see it.

00:59:35.000 So if you look at 2007, you got to go all the way down.

00:59:39.000 Keep on going, 2017. See those races there?

00:59:42.000 Okay, get right there.

00:59:44.000 So, 100 miler Hawaii.

00:59:45.000 Oh, Jesus Christ.

00:59:47.000 Two weeks later, three weeks later, another one, that's 50 miler.

00:59:50.000 50 miler a month later.

00:59:54.000 Then you're looking at, what, 14 days later, another 50k.

00:59:58.000 50 miler a month later.

01:00:00.000 Then you look at less than a month, another 50 miler.

01:00:04.000 53 miler in June.

01:00:05.000 July was another 100 miler.

01:00:07.000 Badwater was literally...

01:00:09.000 Badwater was a month after I did that 100 miler.

01:00:12.000 135 miler.

01:00:13.000 Leadville was less than a month after Badwater.

01:00:17.000 The Plain 100 was three weeks after Leadville.

01:00:21.000 Angel's Crest was 10 days, a week after that 100 miler.

01:00:26.000 The Bear 100 was, what, 13 days after that 100 miler?

01:00:31.000 Jesus Christ.

01:00:31.000 And then I ran the 200, it said 203.5, but I didn't ran, it was 205 miles, I ran there.

01:00:37.000 But what's not in there was that McNaughton race I did in 2000, so that 150 mile race, I also did in 2007 that wasn't listed.

01:00:47.000 So that was just my 2007 year.

01:00:50.000 That's insane.

01:00:51.000 Yeah, so... 0.99

01:00:51.000 Do you think that is what fucked your body up? 0.99

01:00:53.000 No. 0.97

01:00:54.000 No?

01:00:54.000 No.

01:00:55.000 Because I still run the same mileage now.

01:00:58.000 What fucked my body up was Hell Week.

01:01:00.000 Really? 0.61

01:01:01.000 Oh, yeah.

01:01:01.000 You don't go through three hell weeks in one year.

01:01:03.000 So what happened was when I realized that my body was really jacked up was I was a big-time squatter.

01:01:09.000 Loved squatting.

01:01:11.000 And I went through the first hell week, got messed up.

01:01:14.000 Second hell week, I got all the way through.

01:01:15.000 Then third hell week, I got all the way through.

01:01:17.000 And my third hell week, we had a guy die on Thursday.

01:01:20.000 And then that hell week ended.

01:01:21.000 And I graduated.

01:01:22.000 How did he die?

01:01:23.000 Pulmonary edema.

01:01:24.000 It was a cold.

01:01:25.000 His name was John Skopp. 0.99

01:01:27.000 Cold as fuck Hell Week. 0.99

01:01:30.000 The Pacific Ocean's never warm. 0.99

01:01:31.000 And it rained the whole time.

01:01:33.000 The whole time it just rained.

01:01:35.000 And he pretty much just drowned in his own fluid, pretty much.

01:01:38.000 We were in the pool doing some evolution.

01:01:40.000 He sunk to the bottom.

01:01:42.000 His temperature was hot.

01:01:43.000 He missed a lot of Hell Week for getting pulled out for different stuff.

01:01:46.000 He wouldn't go quit.

01:01:47.000 And he ended up dying in Hell Week.

01:01:50.000 But, yeah, so anyway...

01:01:52.000 After Hell Week ended, I wanted to go back to the gym.

01:01:56.000 You know, so second phase happened, dive phase.

01:01:58.000 Like, I could get back in the gym and start jacking my weight.

01:02:00.000 I love jacking weight.

01:02:01.000 And I realized I couldn't squat. 0.96

01:02:04.000 So I went from squatting a lot to where I couldn't even squat the bar because my lower back was all fucked up. 0.94

01:02:08.000 And I was like, I don't know what's going on. 0.66

01:02:10.000 It was because this muscle, so in Hell Week, your hip flexors are so, and I went through so many of them so fast.

01:02:18.000 And so the hardest part of BUDS, I went through three times.

01:02:21.000 Not the Hell Week part, that's one of the hardest parts, but it was the initial part of the, what everybody sees on TV. The log PT, the surf torture, the daggone boats over your head, all that shit. 0.99

01:02:33.000 I went through that person three times in one year. 0.99

01:02:37.000 And over a period of time, my hip flexors got so tight that it just jacked me up.

01:02:43.000 It jacked me up from my hip flexors, always being so cold and so stressed out.

01:02:48.000 And everything led up to it, but this really was the part that I noticed I could squat before Hell Week or before my first time going to BUDS. After BUDS, I couldn't squat anymore.

01:03:02.000 Do you just think it might just be because your body was exhausted?

01:03:05.000 No.

01:03:06.000 No?

01:03:07.000 For 12 years or so, I would go back and tough it out like with Joe Burns. 0.99

01:03:11.000 He was squatting, so I said, fuck, I'm going to squat with Joe Burns. 0.99

01:03:14.000 But I just couldn't squat because that muscle was attached to your T12. So what was it doing to you? 0.99

01:03:19.000 Was it locking up?

01:03:20.000 It was just pulling. 1.00

01:03:21.000 So it made my hips feel like I couldn't sink my ass. 0.99

01:03:25.000 Oh, okay. 0.99

01:03:25.000 I couldn't sink, so it was just incredible pain. 0.99

01:03:27.000 And then with the weight...

01:03:29.000 Pushing me down and then trying to push up the pain was just is this too much?

01:03:34.000 So it's all this is all range of motion all range of motion issues.

01:03:37.000 Yeah Wow that that's an important thing for my friend Cam Haynes who doesn't stretch He's another friend of mine who runs ultra races.

01:03:44.000 He ran that Moab 240 He's run the Bigfoot 205. He's run a few of those.

01:03:50.000 Right.

01:03:51.000 I know he's listening.

01:03:52.000 Go stretch, dude.

01:03:53.000 Yeah, support, man.

01:03:54.000 Especially if you're working that hard, right?

01:03:56.000 If you're doing that much.

01:03:57.000 Yeah, you're definitely locking up.

01:03:59.000 He could barely touch his toes.

01:04:01.000 Yeah, that's not a good thing.

01:04:02.000 That's not good, right?

01:04:03.000 No, no.

01:04:03.000 It comes back to hurt you inside pretty soon.

01:04:05.000 Now, how flexible are you now? 0.99

01:04:06.000 Because I would imagine you're probably a fucking ballerina at this point. 1.00

01:04:09.000 What's sad is... 1.00

01:04:09.000 Knowing your brain. 1.00

01:04:11.000 I'm trying to get there.

01:04:12.000 I'm trying to get there.

01:04:13.000 So I stretch every night for at least two hours.

01:04:15.000 There's a thing that people say that will always piss me off.

01:04:18.000 Like, because I'm pretty flexible.

01:04:19.000 They say, oh, you're naturally flexible.

01:04:21.000 People have a natural threshold.

01:04:22.000 They're like, no, they don't.

01:04:24.000 Like, a doctor told me that.

01:04:25.000 I go, you don't know what you're talking about.

01:04:26.000 I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about because most people don't push themselves past that pain, that stretch pain.

01:04:31.000 Right.

01:04:31.000 People want to put a title on you, man.

01:04:33.000 It's easier for them. 0.99

01:04:34.000 Oh, you're just fucking natural. 0.99

01:04:35.000 Exactly. 0.99

01:04:36.000 You're natural.

01:04:36.000 Exactly.

01:04:37.000 No, you don't work hard enough, motherfucker. 1.00

01:04:38.000 Yeah, people built like chimps aren't usually flexible. 1.00

01:04:41.000 You have to force yourself to do that.

01:04:44.000 That's right.

01:04:44.000 And I know it because I had a friend, my friend Tom Rodogna.

01:04:47.000 He was a football player.

01:04:48.000 Jack, big, thick dude.

01:04:50.000 Terrible flexibility.

01:04:51.000 He was taking Taekwondo with me.

01:04:52.000 And over the course of a couple years, I saw that dude eventually develop a full split.

01:04:57.000 There you go.

01:04:57.000 And he just did it through his mind.

01:04:59.000 Everybody else was done training.

01:05:00.000 That guy would be on the mat, constantly stretching, always working out.

01:05:04.000 Because he had built his body up so strong from all those years of squatting and lifting that he was all tense.

01:05:11.000 Everything was just like this.

01:05:13.000 Super powerful.

01:05:14.000 Right.

01:05:14.000 But all, like, very tense.

01:05:15.000 That's why I stopped, you know, that's why I never stretched, because I wanted that strength.

01:05:19.000 Yeah.

01:05:19.000 Yeah, you want that tight muscle, but no.

01:05:21.000 I don't think it... 1.00

01:05:22.000 It's stupid. 0.99

01:05:22.000 Yeah, I think you're not supposed to stretch before you do big physical activities, because I think it does, like, weaken you somewhat. 0.99

01:05:29.000 But I don't think being flexible overall makes you weaker.

01:05:32.000 Not at all.

01:05:33.000 Not at all.

01:05:34.000 Well, it certainly doesn't for martial arts because you need that flexibility to have leg dexterity to be able to kick.

01:05:40.000 Right.

01:05:40.000 It's got to be fluid where it's not tightened up by the restriction of the motion of your body.

01:05:45.000 I get it.

01:05:45.000 It's truth.

01:05:46.000 I just think people are, for whatever reason, and I'm one of those, I drone on too much about yoga.

01:05:52.000 I'm like one of those vegans.

01:05:53.000 It's like, you got to do it, man.

01:05:55.000 Right.

01:05:55.000 Just try it.

01:05:56.000 I get annoying, like a born-again Christian or something. 0.99

01:05:59.000 I'm getting that way now, man.

01:06:00.000 I'm getting that way now.

01:06:01.000 For anybody who does anything hard, like, you know, if you do anything like weightlifting type shit or martial arts type shit where it's just everything's explosion, it's lifting, it's heavy, it's push, push, push. 0.66

01:06:15.000 Right. 0.98

01:06:15.000 Yoga just will balance your shit out. 0.98

01:06:18.000 Yeah, it will. 0.99

01:06:19.000 Yeah, it will.

01:06:19.000 It really will, man.

01:06:20.000 And it's all these people that resist it.

01:06:22.000 Like there was some article recently that was something along the lines of hot yoga is just trendy nonsense.

01:06:27.000 I read that.

01:06:28.000 And then even in the article, it talked about that there might be some benefits in terms of like the strengthening your arteries.

01:06:35.000 And they didn't even mention heat shock proteins.

01:06:38.000 There's a study going on right now.

01:06:39.000 I believe it's at Harvard.

01:06:40.000 One of my friends was telling me about it where they're trying to find the benefits of 90-minute hot yoga classes because they think it might mirror the observed benefits of sauna, which they already know for a fact has big benefits because of your body producing heat shock proteins to deal with the heat.

01:06:40.000 Right.

01:06:58.000 That's why I put that sauna in here, man. 1.00

01:07:00.000 I go in that fucker all the time. 1.00

01:07:01.000 Well, no one can tell me it doesn't work. 1.00

01:07:03.000 It's proof positive.

01:07:04.000 It changed my life.

01:07:05.000 It wasn't a medication or this or a dress.

01:07:08.000 It was stretching.

01:07:09.000 It was yoga, stretching, all that stuff combined.

01:07:11.000 Well, I just think it balances out your body in those static poses where you're just holding the pose and it just works you out in a weird way.

01:07:11.000 Changed it.

01:07:21.000 You just don't get lifting weights or hitting the bag or anything else.

01:07:21.000 100%.

01:07:25.000 You're just not going to get that kind of working out.

01:07:27.000 I can't agree with you more.

01:07:28.000 And it's so difficult.

01:07:29.000 That's what's crazy. 0.99

01:07:31.000 You're in there with a bunch of housewives and shit, and you're like, this is like the silent struggle. 1.00

01:07:35.000 It's humbling. 1.00

01:07:36.000 Nobody knows. 0.99

01:07:37.000 If you see like two doorways, right, and one of them is like fucking C.T. Ali Fletcher's fucking super pump Iron Attic's gym, which is hard work, and then right next to it is the yoga studio. 0.88

01:07:37.000 No, it's humbling. 0.88

01:07:51.000 You're like, well...

01:07:52.000 Once you get done with all that hard work, you'll go over to that yoga studio.

01:07:56.000 No, there's two different kinds of hard work going on.

01:07:58.000 It's no joke.

01:07:59.000 Two different kinds of hard work.

01:08:00.000 Yes, sir.

01:08:01.000 So what do you do now in terms of like you got over this five years ago, you're in this bad situation where your body's not working right, now everything's working great again.

01:08:11.000 Well, I had two heart surgeries also.

01:08:13.000 Whoa! 0.71

01:08:15.000 What was wrong with your heart?

01:08:17.000 So I had a hole in it.

01:08:19.000 So, you know, you're not supposed to have a hole in your heart and be a SEAL. Were you born with it?

01:08:23.000 I was born with it.

01:08:24.000 It went undetected and me pushing so hard.

01:08:28.000 So in 2009, I was training for this race across America and I just couldn't go anymore. 0.98

01:08:35.000 Another pitfall in my life was the hole.

01:08:37.000 And I was pretty much off active duty seal for three years.

01:08:40.000 You know, I had two hearts, them trying to fix it.

01:08:43.000 So the hole was significantly large.

01:08:44.000 Like how big?

01:08:45.000 They say it was as big as a quarter.

01:08:48.000 I'm like, how the hell is it as big as a quarter?

01:08:49.000 Yeah, that's a pretty big hole in your heart.

01:08:51.000 Because they had two helix patches.

01:08:53.000 I'm like, that's impossible.

01:08:55.000 The helix patches, they're in my heart, so the two stents.

01:08:57.000 What is a helix patch?

01:08:58.000 It is like a little mesh, very...

01:09:01.000 Like what they do for hernias? 1.00

01:09:03.000 Like something like that?

01:09:04.000 Maybe something like that.

01:09:05.000 So they went up through my femoral artery, and they placed this patch.

01:09:08.000 To go through your artery?

01:09:09.000 Yeah, they went through my femoral artery.

01:09:11.000 Like with a camera?

01:09:12.000 Yeah.

01:09:13.000 Whoa! 0.71

01:09:13.000 No, the camera was down through my throat. 0.71

01:09:15.000 Whoa! 0.71

01:09:16.000 And they put this catheter through my femoral artery that went through my heart.

01:09:20.000 They went and they took this Helix patch, they placed it in there, and then they found out six months later that the hole wasn't covered up enough yet.

01:09:31.000 The healer's patch was very damn big.

01:09:34.000 So they go back in there in 2010. How does the patch adhere to your heart?

01:09:39.000 I guess your heart heals around the patch.

01:09:41.000 But how do they stick it in place?

01:09:44.000 I guess they put it where the hole's at and then it kind of like inflates where the hole is at.

01:09:50.000 And then that thing goes in there, and then it kind of covers the hole, and then the heart.

01:09:55.000 So there's two things in my heart right now that the heart is kind of covered up.

01:09:59.000 Whoa.

01:10:00.000 Okay, so here's it.

01:10:01.000 So there you go.

01:10:02.000 Jamie's got an image of it for us.

01:10:04.000 Whoa.

01:10:05.000 So it's attached to this little probe, and then they put it over the area where the injury is.

01:10:13.000 Wow, that's insane.

01:10:15.000 Yeah, atrial septum defects that I had.

01:10:17.000 Atrial septal defect.

01:10:19.000 So basically everything I had done...

01:10:21.000 Thank God for medicine. 1.00

01:10:22.000 Oh, shit. 1.00

01:10:23.000 It's crazy what they could do. 1.00

01:10:24.000 I'd be done.

01:10:25.000 That's so crazy that they could do that.

01:10:26.000 Yeah, so I was off active duty for three years, so I was in a recruiting area for three years trying to get back on active duty, and that was my life for three years, man.

01:10:38.000 So they put that...

01:10:39.000 Patch in.

01:10:40.000 And now your heart's a hundred percent?

01:10:40.000 Yep.

01:10:42.000 It's a hundred percent.

01:10:43.000 It's a hundred percent.

01:10:44.000 Wow.

01:10:45.000 Yeah.

01:10:45.000 That's incredible.

01:10:46.000 Yeah.

01:10:46.000 I was losing, you know, blood and I was just, I was bad off.

01:10:51.000 Which is amazing that you were able to do all that with a hole in your heart.

01:10:54.000 That's what the doctors were saying, you know, because they didn't know I was a seal.

01:10:56.000 So when I went in and the doctor that found the hole, like, so they gave me EKGs, all this stuff.

01:11:02.000 Once again, Man, it's after I ran like 205 miles, you know?

01:11:07.000 Right.

01:11:07.000 Like, man, you're in great shape.

01:11:09.000 I'm like, man, I just don't feel good.

01:11:11.000 Like, walking up the stairs is making me jacked up.

01:11:14.000 So, the doctor, Doc Shrek, he's like, you know, gave me EKG. He goes, go to the doctor, get an echocardiogram.

01:11:20.000 So, I'm in there, getting an echocardiogram, just chilling out in there, and the guy's talking to me.

01:11:25.000 He has this little wand in my heart. 0.99

01:11:27.000 We're bullshitting about stuff, and he, when people get quiet, Fucking not good, man. 0.98

01:11:33.000 So he's in there, just has his wand on my heart, chilling out. 0.98

01:11:36.000 Yeah, man, what are you doing here?

01:11:37.000 What's going on?

01:11:41.000 And he says, I'll be right back.

01:11:43.000 He goes and gets a doctor.

01:11:45.000 Doctor comes in, puts a thing on my heart.

01:11:48.000 The doctor gets another doctor. 0.58

01:11:51.000 Now, I'm just freaking the fuck out.

01:11:53.000 I'm like, okay, because when it comes to your heart, you know, it's a big deal. 0.90

01:11:56.000 So they come back in, they say, hey, we can stop the echocardiogram.

01:11:59.000 We need to talk to you out in the hallway.

01:12:01.000 You have a hole in your heart. 0.96

01:12:03.000 And the guy didn't know that I was, he knew I was a Navy guy, but I don't think he knew I was a SEAL, because not many black guys are SEALs.

01:12:10.000 And we had a conversation about, you know, we got to fix this real quick.

01:12:14.000 I said, yeah, I mean, then I came up that I was a SEAL. He said, man, you could have died jumping, you could have died diving, you could have died and all this stuff.

01:12:22.000 Because basically, the hole in your heart, if it gets plugged with something, like anything, like, you know, let's say you get a bubble from diving or something like that, you're going to die.

01:12:31.000 Right.

01:12:32.000 So I call it luck.

01:12:35.000 I call it luck.

01:12:36.000 So I got through two surgeries.

01:12:38.000 They put me back on.

01:12:40.000 They give you the first one, and then when do they realize that it's not good enough?

01:12:44.000 So they take you back in, and you get a bubble study, a bubble test.

01:12:47.000 So they literally send bubbles that way, safe bubbles that way, to see if the bubble goes through your heart.

01:12:54.000 So they have this echocardiogram again, and they hook you up, I think, to IV or something like that, and they throw these bubbles through your heart.

01:13:02.000 And they see if it goes through.

01:13:04.000 After six months, when it should have been healed up, the bubble went through.

01:13:09.000 So they had to tell me then, hey, you're not good to go.

01:13:15.000 So I had to take a year before I could have another surgery.

01:13:21.000 Because that patch had to be completely, completely healed before they can go back in.

01:13:26.000 But all this time, you knew you had a hole.

01:13:28.000 So they knew I had a hole because of the heart surgery.

01:13:28.000 Right.

01:13:30.000 Right, but all this time, like when you're waiting for it to heal, you know you have an extra hole.

01:13:34.000 Yes, I know I have a hole.

01:13:35.000 What were you allowed to do with your body then?

01:13:37.000 Well, at that time, they go, you know, do how you feel comfortable.

01:13:41.000 And so, you know, the hole is not going to kill you right now, but you can't dive, you can't jump.

01:13:47.000 I pretty much wasn't a seal anymore, so I was a recruiter for a period of time.

01:13:52.000 So basically, I was crazy about that.

01:13:56.000 Before my second surgery, I was actually training for Delta Force.

01:14:01.000 I wanted to go to Delta, and I was rucking, ruck running a lot.

01:14:06.000 And before my second...

01:14:07.000 When ruck running mean you're running with a pack on?

01:14:09.000 Yeah, a pack on my back with some weight on it.

01:14:10.000 How heavy is the pack?

01:14:11.000 50, 60 pounds.

01:14:12.000 And you run with that on?

01:14:13.000 Well, you're supposed to hike or hump, like ruck humping.

01:14:17.000 I ran with it.

01:14:17.000 Right.

01:14:19.000 Wow.

01:14:19.000 Because, you know, that's what I did.

01:14:21.000 Right.

01:14:22.000 So, the day of heart surgery, I did a ruck run.

01:14:28.000 Jesus Christ.

01:14:28.000 Because I knew I was going to be out of commission for a while.

01:14:32.000 So, fuck it, man. 1.00

01:14:33.000 I got to get my last one in, dude. 1.00

01:14:35.000 Jesus Christ.

01:14:35.000 So, all I could do, I have my training logs.

01:14:38.000 So, after my second heart surgery, all I could do was walk.

01:14:40.000 So, I became an ultra walker. 1.00

01:14:42.000 Fucking walked my fucking ass off. 1.00

01:14:42.000 Wow. 1.00

01:14:44.000 And over a period of time, it took a year for that thing to heal up.

01:14:49.000 You know, my first bubble study after my second heart surgery came back negative or positive.

01:14:54.000 The bubble went through again.

01:14:56.000 Oh, no.

01:14:57.000 And they're going to have to crack me open.

01:14:58.000 Oh, man.

01:14:59.000 But over that period of time, my heart healed around that thing nicely, and I passed the second bubble test.

01:15:04.000 So the first bubble test was how long after?

01:15:06.000 A year?

01:15:07.000 So the first bubble test after the first surgery was six months.

01:15:10.000 And then you had to go through a full six months after that for it to totally heal.

01:15:14.000 Then you have the second heart surgery.

01:15:16.000 And when does the bubble test fail after the second heart surgery?

01:15:19.000 It was about six months.

01:15:20.000 Jesus Christ.

01:15:21.000 And they said, and the doctor looked at me and said, you know, I'm sorry to inform you, man.

01:15:24.000 We're going to have to crack your chest open the next time they're really getting there.

01:15:28.000 And so I sat back thinking this could be a third heart surgery.

01:15:32.000 And then they said, we have to wait for six months to see if this thing's gonna close up.

01:15:38.000 Right. 0.98

01:15:38.000 And I came back thinking, man, I'm about to get cracked the fuck open. 0.98

01:15:41.000 And that bubble got pinned up, man. 0.88

01:15:45.000 Didn't go through.

01:15:45.000 Wow.

01:15:46.000 Maybe you forced it through with your mind.

01:15:47.000 I know, right? 1.00

01:15:48.000 Close that bitch up. 1.00

01:15:50.000 When you're visualizing. 1.00

01:15:51.000 That's it, man.

01:15:52.000 That's something to visualize. 1.00

01:15:53.000 Holy shit, man. 1.00

01:15:55.000 That is crazy. 1.00

01:15:56.000 It's crazy you went on a ruck run with a hole in your heart, too.

01:15:59.000 Well, I did it for several years. 1.00

01:16:00.000 I said, fuck it. 1.00

01:16:01.000 I might as well keep on going, man. 1.00

01:16:05.000 That's amazing.

01:16:06.000 Now, after all said and done, everything's good now? 1.00

01:16:09.000 I mean, I'm sure something wants to pop up in my fucking ass not to do that. 0.99

01:16:09.000 Yeah, everything's... 0.99

01:16:12.000 You know, everything's good right now.

01:16:14.000 I'm always waiting for the next thing to pop up, and I handle it the same way.

01:16:17.000 I'll just attack it.

01:16:18.000 But yeah, as of right now, I'm in the best shape.

01:16:19.000 I'm 43 years old.

01:16:21.000 Just turned 43 February 17th.

01:16:23.000 I am in the best shape of my life.

01:16:26.000 I'm not knocking on wood because life... 1.00

01:16:28.000 Fuck it. 1.00

01:16:28.000 Life comes at you, dude. 1.00

01:16:29.000 So fuck knocking on wood. 1.00

01:16:31.000 I mean, I would think that you would be a go-to guy for injuries. 1.00

01:16:31.000 Come at me. 1.00

01:16:36.000 Yeah.

01:16:36.000 I've had them all, dude.

01:16:38.000 I've had them all.

01:16:40.000 When you broke the world record for chin-ups, didn't you rip your arm apart?

01:16:43.000 Pull-ups, yeah.

01:16:44.000 So if you pull up the picture, man, there's a picture of my hand.

01:16:46.000 You'll see.

01:16:47.000 I don't know...

01:16:48.000 What is it?

01:16:49.000 Pull-ups are...

01:16:50.000 So pull-ups are here.

01:16:51.000 Hands out.

01:16:51.000 Yeah, hands out.

01:16:52.000 And chin-ups are hands forward.

01:16:53.000 Right, hands forward.

01:16:54.000 So I fell twice before I finally got it the third time. 0.97

01:17:00.000 The first time I ripped the shit out of my forearm... 0.83

01:17:03.000 And then the second time, you'll see there's a picture of my hand, and it's a third-degree burn. 0.96

01:17:11.000 So that's my hand.

01:17:12.000 Oh, Jesus, man. 0.99

01:17:14.000 What in the fuck is going on? 1.00

01:17:16.000 Look, you got bit by a wolf. 0.99

01:17:17.000 So what's funny about that is you see that that doesn't create after one pull-up.

01:17:22.000 So if you can imagine the pain, because you have one contact point.

01:17:26.000 That's it.

01:17:27.000 Like running, you can overcome it because you have these big giant legs and it's different.

01:17:32.000 When you have these little fragile punk-ass hands touching the bar, you know, imagine 4,030 pull-ups, how many times you're coming on that bar, coming off.

01:17:42.000 And I weighed 207 pounds at the time.

01:17:44.000 So I was a bigger guy.

01:17:46.000 I'm like 185 now.

01:17:48.000 So I was almost 22 pounds heavier.

01:17:51.000 So I was a lot bigger than I am right there.

01:17:53.000 You look pretty thick. 1.00

01:17:54.000 Get that shit, man. 1.00

01:17:55.000 So you were doing it in sets of five? 1.00

01:17:58.000 So as you see, I have these different people who are witnessing you.

01:17:58.000 Sets of five.

01:18:03.000 You have to have your number there to make sure that you're...

01:18:07.000 You know, qualified for the Guinness Book of World Records, that's 14, 15. I have a long way to go.

01:18:11.000 I have another 4,015 pull-ups to go right there.

01:18:15.000 Jesus Christ.

01:18:16.000 So, yeah.

01:18:17.000 And how long did you do this over?

01:18:18.000 24 hours?

01:18:19.000 I broke it at 17. Wow.

01:18:19.000 It was seven.

01:18:22.000 And I was fucking over it. 0.97

01:18:25.000 What did it feel like on the last chin-up? 0.99

01:18:27.000 You know what?

01:18:28.000 Actually, there's a video that we have, and I was chasing this guy named Stephen Hyland.

01:18:34.000 So this guy named Stephen Highland had the record.

01:18:36.000 And the video is my last three pull-ups before I broke the record. 1.00

01:18:39.000 I'm talking so much shit to this motherfucker. 1.00

01:18:42.000 I'm like, hey, motherfucker, you thought I wasn't going to get it, huh? 1.00

01:18:45.000 I told you, bitch-ass motherfucker, I'm coming after you. 1.00

01:18:47.000 I'm here now. 1.00

01:18:48.000 It's just me talking shit. 0.99

01:18:49.000 It's a cool video, but I felt nothing. 0.98

01:18:53.000 I was just happy that I didn't have to do any more.

01:18:54.000 I did 67,000 pull-ups in nine months in training for a record for 4,000.

01:19:02.000 And the failures, so I did the first time in September, failed miserably on the day, so I did 2,588 or something like that.

01:19:10.000 Failed miserably for millions of people.

01:19:12.000 Two months later, November tried again, failed again. 0.99

01:19:17.000 Two months later in January 19th, I finally fucking got it. 0.85

01:19:21.000 So after I got it, it wasn't like I'm happy. 0.97

01:19:25.000 It was like, I ain't got to do more fucking pull-ups anymore. 0.97

01:19:27.000 Roger that. 0.99

01:19:28.000 That's all it was. 1.00

01:19:29.000 I had to fucking check that bitch off, man. 1.00

01:19:32.000 But you were doing them when I got here today. 1.00

01:19:34.000 Because now it's a part of me, dude.

01:19:34.000 You know why?

01:19:36.000 It's a part of me, man.

01:19:37.000 I don't like doing them, so we're going to knock some out.

01:19:40.000 You don't like doing them, so you got to do them.

01:19:42.000 That's my whole life.

01:19:43.000 Isn't it like when someone gets drunk on a certain whiskey, like if they smell it, they'll get disgusted?

01:19:48.000 Right.

01:19:49.000 Like Jägermeister or something like that.

01:19:51.000 They smell it and they'll go, ugh!

01:19:52.000 Right.

01:19:52.000 Is that what it's like with you with chin-ups?

01:19:54.000 With a lot of things.

01:19:55.000 With pull-ups?

01:19:55.000 With a lot of things.

01:19:56.000 With a lot of things now, right?

01:19:57.000 I don't like running.

01:19:58.000 I don't like, and people don't believe it, but I was a big guy twice in my life.

01:20:03.000 So hence the reason why I just don't like running, man.

01:20:06.000 It hurts.

01:20:06.000 It's brutal.

01:20:07.000 It sucks going out and I'm gonna be gone for two hours or I'm gonna be gone 39 hours running on a one-mile track I'm not crazy, man. 1.00

01:20:16.000 That shit sucks. 1.00

01:20:18.000 I mean, you know, people put me in this category of, you must be some crazy guy who loves it. 1.00

01:20:22.000 No, man. 0.88

01:20:23.000 No, that's why I do it, though. 1.00

01:20:25.000 That's the only way to callous your fucking brain, man. 1.00

01:20:27.000 That's the only way to get harder in life. 1.00

01:20:28.000 People take these classes on mental toughness.

01:20:30.000 Like, even Seals, you have a class about visualization, self-talk, eat an elephant one bite at a time, breathing control.

01:20:36.000 Yeah, roger that.

01:20:38.000 You got to put yourself in a hellacious situation.

01:20:40.000 It's a lifestyle.

01:20:42.000 How are you going to react?

01:20:44.000 How are you going to react? 0.99

01:20:45.000 Like, all that training goes out the fucking door when you're in the fucking cold water and you're fucking miserable and it's the first hour of 130 hours of Hell Week and that first wave goes over your head and you're the coldest you've been in your life and your mind goes from hour 1 to hour 1 fucking 30. All that fucking self-talking shit, 1.00

01:21:03.000 dude. 1.00

01:21:03.000 You ain't thinking about getting the fuck out of here. 1.00

01:21:05.000 But if you live this shit... 1.00

01:21:08.000 On a daily basis, you know how to calm your mind down. 1.00

01:21:11.000 The self-talk will help.

01:21:12.000 All that stuff will help.

01:21:13.000 But usually we react.

01:21:15.000 We have pain.

01:21:16.000 We have suffering.

01:21:17.000 We react. 0.98

01:21:17.000 And we react about, get the fuck out of here. 0.98

01:21:20.000 We gotta go. 1.00

01:21:21.000 It's those people who are able to control that fucking feeling of fucking flight and say, no, motherfucker. 1.00

01:21:27.000 There's a way through this. 1.00

01:21:29.000 It's not going to be here forever.

01:21:30.000 I'm not cold right now.

01:21:32.000 I went through three of them.

01:21:33.000 I'm not cold now.

01:21:34.000 I'm in a nice warm studio with you. 1.00

01:21:36.000 You got to think about that shit. 1.00

01:21:37.000 It's just going to end. 1.00

01:21:39.000 It's going to end, but we don't know that.

01:21:40.000 We don't think that.

01:21:41.000 At that time, it's just going to last forever.

01:21:42.000 And then you get to sit back on Friday with everybody walking across the, you know, back on the grinder, all the 16, 17, 18 guys that graduated Hell Week, and you get a chance to watch these guys victorious.

01:21:53.000 And then you get the chance to think about that. 0.99

01:21:55.000 You take that hot, warm shower, First thing that comes to your fucking mind is why the fuck did I quit? 1.00

01:21:59.000 So what keeps me going? 1.00

01:22:01.000 I've quit several things. 0.99

01:22:03.000 I know what's on the back end of fucking quitting. 0.99

01:22:06.000 It's a lifetime of thinking about why the fuck did I do that? 0.99

01:22:11.000 I ain't fucking doing that no more. 0.99

01:22:13.000 There's something about talking to a guy like you that a lot of people hope that you're gonna say some magic thing that's gonna click in their brain. 0.97

01:22:21.000 Everybody wants to change who they are.

01:22:23.000 Like, what is it?

01:22:24.000 That's why people go to these self-help conferences.

01:22:24.000 What is the thing?

01:22:29.000 And they take these classes and they hope that someone's going to say something that changes the way their mind works.

01:22:36.000 It's hilarious to me.

01:22:37.000 It is.

01:22:38.000 It's kind of hilarious to me too.

01:22:39.000 But what is also hilarious is that what you're saying is...

01:22:44.000 That you have to do those things.

01:22:46.000 You have to suffer.

01:22:48.000 You have to live in it.

01:22:49.000 You have to be comfortable in it. 1.00

01:22:51.000 And then, maybe, some of that shit will help you a little bit along the way. 1.00

01:22:56.000 Period. 0.99

01:22:57.000 And I went to...

01:22:58.000 I was a...

01:22:59.000 When I was a SEAL recruiter, I got invited to MIT. Smartass motherfuckers there, man. 1.00

01:23:04.000 I'm not that. 1.00

01:23:05.000 I'm a cigar animal.

01:23:06.000 I'm a knuckle-dragger.

01:23:08.000 And, um...

01:23:09.000 There was this guy there, I forget his name, but he was like the top head guy.

01:23:13.000 Old white guy, you know, all geniused out. 0.95

01:23:17.000 And we were on this panel, and they were asking us all these questions about the mind, mental toughness and shit, and he was answering them. 0.99

01:23:23.000 And I wasn't answering them any questions. 0.98

01:23:25.000 And I'll never forget, he was just answering them off of theory. 1.00

01:23:28.000 He ain't never put his fucking ass in shit. 1.00

01:23:30.000 You read a bunch of fucking books, and you think that you know how the fucking mind works and shit. 1.00

01:23:35.000 I'd have gone through hell since a kid. 1.00

01:23:37.000 And then all the way up until now. 1.00

01:23:39.000 So I know So that theory is bullshit. 0.95

01:23:44.000 Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff out there you can read from people. 0.99

01:23:47.000 But I had lived hell. 1.00

01:23:49.000 And when you put yourself in hell, that's the only time you can figure out how the fuck to get through that motherfucker. 1.00

01:23:55.000 You can't read somebody else's book about some theory on how to do shit. 1.00

01:23:59.000 Some guy who sat up in their nice warm office and wrote some book with a nice cup of coffee in the fucking hand. 1.00

01:24:05.000 No. 1.00

01:24:06.000 I want to see that guy who immersed himself in fucking hell. 1.00

01:24:11.000 And he thought about quitting and leaving and his wife and his kids and why am I here? 0.99

01:24:16.000 Is it worth it? 0.99

01:24:17.000 All this crazy shit is still said and found out a way to get through it. 0.98

01:24:24.000 So basically that's the bottom line of it all. 0.98

01:24:27.000 We all want to read about how we can quickly get somewhere. 0.97

01:24:31.000 That's why there's six minute abs and all sorts of shit so powerful.

01:24:36.000 You may get some results from it, but they're not permanent. 1.00

01:24:39.000 The permanent result comes from you fucking, I say it all the time, you have to suffer. 1.00

01:24:46.000 You have to make that a tattoo on your fucking brain so when that hard time comes again, you don't forget it. 1.00

01:24:55.000 You may forget it for a second, but you can go back in the cookie jar, I call it. 1.00

01:24:59.000 It's something that we've all endured.

01:25:01.000 I call it the cookie jar, and we often forget how hard we are, but you've got to reflect back.

01:25:06.000 Take a couple seconds to reflect.

01:25:07.000 I've been through this.

01:25:08.000 I've been through that. 1.00

01:25:09.000 And then remind yourself, I'm a bad motherfucker. 1.00

01:25:12.000 And then you can get through that shit, but if you don't believe it, you haven't endured shit, you're just blowing smoke, man. 1.00

01:25:20.000 And you're not gonna get through anything. 1.00

01:25:21.000 What was this guy saying?

01:25:22.000 Like, what was his theories that he was throwing out there?

01:25:24.000 His theories was about, I forget exactly what it was, but it was something about what the mind does under stress.

01:25:30.000 And how we can't.

01:25:32.000 He said how we can't do something.

01:25:35.000 And I did it.

01:25:37.000 I did what he said we couldn't do.

01:25:39.000 Like, what was he saying he couldn't do?

01:25:41.000 It was something about if you're born a certain way, you can't become this way.

01:25:51.000 It was totally saying that who I am now, like I had to be born with some, not genetic power or some gift from God, but I had to have some kind of special gift.

01:26:04.000 Had to have some kind of special gift.

01:26:05.000 And I forget what set me off.

01:26:06.000 But it was like, we had to be...

01:26:08.000 To be somewhere, you had to be born with it.

01:26:11.000 What was the concept?

01:26:13.000 And I know what I was born with.

01:26:15.000 And I know the battle that I had in my mind.

01:26:19.000 So when he said it, I just sat there looking at my face and somebody in the crowd asked me a question.

01:26:23.000 And I totally contradicted everything he said. 1.00

01:26:26.000 And I was like, nah man, I mean I fucking know for a fact that you can be this fucked up dude Like, really fucked up dude. 1.00

01:26:35.000 And with the right mindset. 1.00

01:26:38.000 It sounds so easy.

01:26:40.000 With the right mindset.

01:26:41.000 It doesn't sound easy.

01:26:43.000 I know what you're saying.

01:26:44.000 It sounds like a simplistic answer.

01:26:45.000 Right.

01:26:46.000 You can.

01:26:47.000 You can.

01:26:48.000 But you have to go into those dark chambers that we often shut off.

01:26:52.000 And you gotta open them up. 1.00

01:26:53.000 You gotta open up and fight that fucking demon. 1.00

01:26:55.000 Get in there. 1.00

01:26:56.000 Talk to that motherfucker. 1.00

01:26:57.000 Say, what's up? 1.00

01:26:58.000 And we often take the...

01:27:00.000 We all like to take this four lane highway.

01:27:03.000 The easy highway. 1.00

01:27:04.000 It has fucking signs. 1.00

01:27:06.000 It has restaurants. 1.00

01:27:07.000 We all love that four-lane highway.

01:27:09.000 We always step over the shovel. 1.00

01:27:11.000 And all I did was I picked up that fucking shovel. 1.00

01:27:14.000 And that shovel, I made my own path. 1.00

01:27:16.000 And you may have big boulders and shit. 0.99

01:27:19.000 They may be getting 200 miles up the road faster than you. 0.99

01:27:21.000 But going through this path of life, this journey over here that you make yourself, that's incredibly difficult. 1.00

01:27:28.000 What comes out the other end of that motherfucker is some glorious shit that you can't even explain to people. 1.00

01:27:33.000 And we're afraid. 1.00

01:27:36.000 Bottom line is most of us, even the people who have all these theories and shit, it's easier to accept the fact that I'm just not good enough. 0.96

01:27:44.000 I wasn't made to do that. 0.98

01:27:46.000 And yeah, some of us can't be LeBron fucking James. 0.99

01:27:49.000 But I'll tell you right now, man, we can do a lot of shit when it comes to this pure-arm guts and willpower and getting through shit. 0.99

01:27:55.000 We have a lot more with a lot more than we think we have. 0.98

01:27:58.000 Yeah, the problem with a guy like that with his theory is that his theories are based on results.

01:28:02.000 And those results are based on human beings.

01:28:04.000 And most human beings, there's certain people that are born with certain gifts, like a guy like LeBron James, obvious physical talent.

01:28:11.000 You know, Jon Jones in MMA, obvious physical talent.

01:28:14.000 But there's...

01:28:16.000 When you look at someone who's super successful, you always assume that it has to be because of some sort of physical gifts because people look at themselves and I'm sure this doctor, this old dude, probably had like a little gut and probably had- That's exactly how he looked.

01:28:32.000 Little tiny arms and weak shoulders and probably thought, well, there's certain people that are just mesomorphic and probably broke it down all these scientific terms.

01:28:40.000 Right. 0.97

01:28:40.000 You know, they just have fast twitch whistle fibers and they'll say all this crazy shit that is true at the very highest levels of the winners. 0.97

01:28:49.000 Right. 0.97

01:28:50.000 But it doesn't mean that you can't become that.

01:28:52.000 No.

01:28:53.000 It just means that it's too painful for most people to go through.

01:28:55.000 So very few people ever get there.

01:28:57.000 So if you look at the actual results, he would be correct.

01:29:00.000 You're right.

01:29:00.000 But he's not correct because he doesn't take the shovel.

01:29:03.000 Exactly.

01:29:04.000 That's the moral of the story.

01:29:06.000 There's not some easy, lit-up, street-like path with nice, smooth roads.

01:29:10.000 That's right. 0.99

01:29:11.000 It's a difficult motherfucker where you're going to fail, and you're going to be in your head. 0.99

01:29:15.000 You're going to be saying, I'm not good enough. 0.99

01:29:17.000 And it's how you get through that.

01:29:20.000 It's how you get through that on a daily basis when that thing is saying, man, I'm 43. I've done so much.

01:29:27.000 You start to become civilized.

01:29:29.000 The refrigerator gets full.

01:29:30.000 You start making money and you start...

01:29:33.000 I'm not getting cold anymore.

01:29:35.000 I'm retired.

01:29:37.000 At 40, people shouldn't be playing basketball or football or being... 1.00

01:29:42.000 You start to believe this shit. 1.00

01:29:44.000 And it becomes in your fucking mind, like, there's people who are retiring, you know, at 40-something years old, or 30-something years old. 1.00

01:29:50.000 At 43, I'm still putting 100 mile weeks, still doing thousands of pull-ups, thousands of push-ups, because I'm not allowing myself to become civilized. 0.99

01:29:59.000 The worst thing that can happen to a man is to become civilized. 1.00

01:30:01.000 You lose that fucking fight, you lose that, why the fuck am I doing this shit? 1.00

01:30:07.000 I'm good. 1.00

01:30:08.000 You ain't good, man. 0.98

01:30:09.000 You ain't never fucking arrived. 0.99

01:30:11.000 And that's just my mentality. 0.99

01:30:12.000 You may have more, but you never fucking arrived. 0.87

01:30:14.000 You want to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. 0.98

01:30:18.000 Period.

01:30:19.000 Uncommon amongst uncommon people is one of the greatest ways to put it.

01:30:23.000 That's it.

01:30:23.000 Like, if you're...

01:30:25.000 Like, for me, what got me in trouble with the Navy SEALs is I wanted to be one so bad.

01:30:31.000 So bad. 0.53

01:30:31.000 I fought my ass off. 0.53

01:30:33.000 And I saw them as uncommon people.

01:30:35.000 Very uncommon.

01:30:36.000 But once you become a Navy SEAL, you're all Navy SEALs, so guess what happens? 0.99

01:30:40.000 You're fucking common again. 0.94

01:30:43.000 I wanted to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. 1.00

01:30:47.000 I wanted to be the guy, I don't care if you fucking like me, I don't care if you don't understand me, I didn't give a fuck. 0.99

01:30:52.000 Once I went through this fucking journey, this path of life, you ain't got a whole bunch of fucking guys that don't fucking like me. 1.00

01:30:57.000 I don't give a fuck. 1.00

01:30:59.000 I'm a warrior. 0.99

01:31:00.000 Period.

01:31:01.000 There's a lot of guys that have been in a lot more combat than me.

01:31:03.000 A warrior is not always that. 0.99

01:31:06.000 A warrior is a motherfucker who says, hey, I'm here again today. 0.99

01:31:10.000 I'm here again tomorrow. 1.00

01:31:11.000 I'm gonna be here the next day.

01:31:13.000 I'm 50 years old. 0.98

01:31:14.000 I'm still fucking getting after it. 0.99

01:31:15.000 It's a person that puts no fucking limit on what's possible. 0.98

01:31:19.000 And that's what got me in trouble a lot. 0.98

01:31:20.000 That's why I went to ranger school as a SEAL. That's why I tried to go to Delta Force twice, you know?

01:31:25.000 I've been through all these different training programs because I was looking for...

01:31:29.000 In the military, what I saw is... 0.99

01:31:31.000 In the training, these people get their ass handed to them. 0.98

01:31:36.000 After they get out, a lot of them get civilized. 0.98

01:31:39.000 I always wanted to go back into training.

01:31:42.000 No matter where I was at, I wanted to go back to war. 1.00

01:31:44.000 And the war was in that training program where you see guys who can quit, guys who are brutal, guys who are suffering, guys who are...

01:31:51.000 As a SEAL, you don't volunteer for Ranger School.

01:31:54.000 I did.

01:31:55.000 I put in seven chips, got turned down, my eighth grade, you know, got accepted.

01:31:58.000 I went at 28, 29 years old.

01:32:01.000 And they go, why did you go?

01:32:03.000 Because I started becoming civilized.

01:32:05.000 I started becoming complacent. 1.00

01:32:07.000 I needed to get my fucking ass kicked again. 1.00

01:32:10.000 And when you go as a seal going down to, you have no rank in Ranger School. 1.00

01:32:14.000 You could be a major. 0.99

01:32:15.000 You're just fucking Joe Brown. 1.00

01:32:17.000 You're nobody. 1.00

01:32:18.000 And you're not eating, you're not sleeping, so I always would put myself, I would immerse myself in shit like that. 1.00

01:32:24.000 Even, I would climb the ladder, and I would intentionally fall back down that motherfucker to say, alright man, getting soft dude, getting soft. 1.00

01:32:33.000 Kick your fucking ass again. 1.00

01:32:35.000 You know, it's kind of the process. 1.00

01:32:37.000 Did you find resistance from that amongst other guys that didn't like that you were making them uncomfortable?

01:32:43.000 Because that is something that people, there's a natural instinct that people have when someone's working harder than them to somehow or another diminish that person.

01:32:51.000 Well, I know that a lot of guys don't like me for a lot of reasons.

01:32:54.000 And I realize that.

01:32:56.000 I am a guy that doesn't care if you like me or not.

01:32:59.000 And when you're an alpha male, and you're against other alpha males, and we eat our own.

01:33:04.000 Alpha males eat their own. 1.00

01:33:06.000 And I love that shit. 1.00

01:33:08.000 Let's fucking go, man. 1.00

01:33:10.000 I want to eat. 1.00

01:33:10.000 Hey, man, I'm all about that kind of mentality. 1.00

01:33:13.000 But I would sometimes take it to another level.

01:33:16.000 I wasn't part of a good old boy network. 0.99

01:33:18.000 I wanted to be David fucking Goggins. 0.97

01:33:21.000 For too long in my life, and it got me in trouble. 0.97

01:33:24.000 For too long in my life, I wanted to be accepted.

01:33:26.000 Growing up, I lied. 0.95

01:33:28.000 I fucking did what I could. 0.98

01:33:30.000 If you fucking like UFC and I didn't, I love it. 0.98

01:33:33.000 I love it, man. 0.99

01:33:34.000 Let's go fucking watch it, man. 0.99

01:33:35.000 Be my friend. 1.00

01:33:36.000 Be my buddy. 1.00

01:33:37.000 That fucking weak-ass shit. 1.00

01:33:38.000 I found out through this path of life, who is David Goggins? 1.00

01:33:43.000 Who am I? I did it alone.

01:33:47.000 There was no fucking trophy on the fucking wall, on the mantle. 1.00

01:33:50.000 That trophy's in my fucking brain. 1.00

01:33:52.000 No one helped me get there. 1.00

01:33:53.000 Nobody paid my fucking bills. 1.00

01:33:54.000 No one did shit for me. 1.00

01:33:55.000 No one ran those fucking miles, lost that fucking weight. 1.00

01:33:57.000 I suffered on my own and developed this man who said, that's who I am, man. 0.99

01:34:02.000 A very competitive, ultra-competitive dude that, take it what you want, man.

01:34:07.000 I call that personal sovereignty.

01:34:09.000 Exactly.

01:34:10.000 There's not a lot of people that have that.

01:34:11.000 That's me.

01:34:12.000 There's a lot of people that change who they are depending upon what people want from them.

01:34:17.000 And that's me.

01:34:18.000 Yeah.

01:34:19.000 That's important, man.

01:34:20.000 And most people struggle their whole life to find out who they are.

01:34:23.000 Struggle their whole life to find out what defines them, what they actually enjoy and what they don't.

01:34:28.000 You start putting yourself in situations that suck, you'll find yourself. 0.68

01:34:32.000 Yeah. 0.96

01:34:33.000 You'll find it real quick.

01:34:34.000 That is the thing, right?

01:34:35.000 And that's one of the things that I've gotten from paying attention to you, is that what you're preaching, what you're talking about, is finding yourself through struggle.

01:34:44.000 That's it.

01:34:45.000 It's the only way to find yourself. 0.98

01:34:46.000 You don't find yourself, if you like bench pressing, and you bench press all the fucking time, what are you finding out? 0.93

01:34:51.000 If you like to swim, that's all you want to do is swim, what are you finding out? 0.99

01:34:58.000 People talk about triple down on your fucking strengths. 1.00

01:35:01.000 That's the fucking weakest shit in the world. 1.00

01:35:04.000 No. 1.00

01:35:05.000 Triple down on your fucking weaknesses. 1.00

01:35:07.000 Find out something about yourself. 1.00

01:35:08.000 You already know the good shit. 1.00

01:35:10.000 You already know the happy shit. 1.00

01:35:11.000 That's why on my Facebook page it goes, why don't you talk about good times? 1.00

01:35:15.000 You know how to get through that shit, motherfucker. 1.00

01:35:19.000 You don't need no one to tell you how to get through. 1.00

01:35:21.000 It's happy. 1.00

01:35:22.000 That's easy shit. 1.00

01:35:24.000 I'm going to tell you how you can help yourself get through the times that suck. 1.00

01:35:28.000 Real life.

01:35:29.000 This is real life. 0.99

01:35:31.000 90% of your life will suck. 1.00

01:35:34.000 10% will be fucking happy. 1.00

01:35:35.000 You may be lucky guy and have a lot of fucking money, have a great ass woman, all this shit. 1.00

01:35:40.000 Trust me. 1.00

01:35:41.000 One on one with that fucking guy, he's missing something. 1.00

01:35:43.000 His life still sucks because he hasn't faced something that bothered him his whole fucking life. 1.00

01:35:48.000 Something is still eating that motherfucker up. 1.00

01:35:51.000 Almost everybody. 0.99

01:35:52.000 Everybody. 0.99

01:35:52.000 Eating you the fuck up. 0.99

01:35:54.000 But maybe you found a good way, how I did growing up, on how to ignore that voice that's saying, you ain't facing some shit. 1.00

01:36:02.000 Period, man. 0.99

01:36:03.000 I'm not special.

01:36:04.000 I just stop listening.

01:36:05.000 I listen to that voice. 0.99

01:36:07.000 This is why I talk so fucking aggressive. 0.99

01:36:10.000 People say, man, do you believe in God? 1.00

01:36:11.000 You cuss so much. 1.00

01:36:13.000 When I say fuck, it's letting you know what I'm thinking. 1.00

01:36:19.000 If I try to make it all pretty and shit, that's not what my life was. 1.00

01:36:23.000 It was a violent, violent struggle daily to get where I'm at today. 0.96

01:36:29.000 I'm not gonna water it down.

01:36:31.000 I'm not gonna water it down. 0.99

01:36:32.000 Shit wasn't fun. 0.99

01:36:33.000 It ain't fun today. 0.99

01:36:35.000 But I'm happy.

01:36:37.000 Don't you think that your happiness is probably elevated by The amount of pain that you've gone through 100% so the amount of suffering that you understand the amount of pain that you've gone through Makes you appreciate the happiness and the beautiful moments with much more intensity.

01:36:55.000 That's what weak people miss about my story Weak people hear this soft kid.

01:36:59.000 Oh my god. 1.00

01:37:00.000 He must be miserable. 0.77

01:37:01.000 Oh my god. 1.00

01:37:01.000 What the hell is wrong with him? 1.00

01:37:02.000 You're missing the fucking story You're not listening to the story man Look what I overcame. 1.00

01:37:10.000 If that doesn't put some badge of honor tattooed in your fucking brain for the rest of your life that you can die today talking to Joe Rogan, you're missing the story, man. 1.00

01:37:20.000 Am I happy? 1.00

01:37:21.000 What the fuck do you think? 0.99

01:37:22.000 Don't misunderstand the passion in which I speak for not being intensely happy. 1.00

01:37:28.000 Happiest person in the world.

01:37:30.000 But I'm not done.

01:37:32.000 So I'm not going to speak to you like, oh man, everything is great. 0.99

01:37:35.000 No, I have a lot more shit to do. 0.99

01:37:38.000 A lot more shit to do. 1.00

01:37:39.000 Well, this is, in the same use of the word that you used, the warrior's mentality, the warrior's life. 1.00

01:37:45.000 Right.

01:37:46.000 This is the way that you can keep balanced and sane and keep...

01:37:52.000 A good grip on who you are.

01:37:54.000 Period.

01:37:55.000 And like there's a quote that was said, I don't know who said it, but it was a great quote. 0.98

01:37:59.000 This guy said, going into combat, going into war, out of the hundred men that go into war, ten shouldn't even fucking be there. 0.94

01:38:08.000 Eighty of them are just targets. 0.93

01:38:10.000 Ten do most, or nine do most of fighting.

01:38:14.000 One is a warrior.

01:38:17.000 And it's a true quote to life.

01:38:19.000 I saw it going through training.

01:38:21.000 I saw it everywhere I went. 0.99

01:38:22.000 There's so many people who just show up to life that shouldn't even fucking be around. 0.97

01:38:27.000 And there's a few people who do all the work. 0.66

01:38:30.000 I wanted to be part of that nine, and I'm working towards being that one.

01:38:35.000 And that's just how I live my life.

01:38:37.000 Now, what are you doing with your life these days?

01:38:39.000 Right now, I keep the same.

01:38:41.000 I'm very routine.

01:38:43.000 I get up every morning.

01:38:44.000 I run.

01:38:44.000 I go to the gym.

01:38:46.000 And then at nighttime, I stretch out.

01:38:48.000 I am just trying to develop a business.

01:38:51.000 Costing me a lot of money trying to do that.

01:38:52.000 I'm just getting out.

01:38:54.000 I'm an introvert.

01:38:55.000 So, I never want to get on social media.

01:38:58.000 I'm not big on that.

01:38:59.000 I'm big on being with yourself.

01:39:02.000 I believe all these... 1.00

01:39:05.000 Fucking cameras and phones and shit. 1.00

01:39:07.000 It takes you away from the most powerful thing in the world, which is your fucking mind. 1.00

01:39:12.000 So I try hard to continue to grow that. 1.00

01:39:14.000 I'm trying to break a record again.

01:39:16.000 I'm trying to cross Death Valley as fast as possible, top of Mount Whitney.

01:39:20.000 And I'm constantly trying to put goals in front of me, but the biggest thing is I'm trying to find more of myself.

01:39:25.000 And the only way I can find more is to silence the world out as much as I can because it's getting busier every day.

01:39:31.000 It's getting faster. 1.00

01:39:32.000 And the faster it gets, the more you are missing who the fuck you are. 1.00

01:39:37.000 So I trap my own mind a lot and say, look, man, I put my phone away, I put shit away, and I go dark. 1.00

01:39:43.000 I go dark a lot, and it's because I have to find out.

01:39:46.000 I'm on a journey of life, and we all have a different journey. 0.96

01:39:49.000 And I want to be in my fucking pine box, and I believe your spirit lives forever. 0.98

01:39:54.000 It has to. 0.99

01:39:54.000 It's too fucking powerful. 0.99

01:39:55.000 No way in hell that thing just dies when you die. 0.99

01:39:59.000 I want to be able to look back on my life when I'm all dead and be so fucking proud of myself forever. 1.00

01:40:04.000 This is all temporary shit to me. 0.99

01:40:06.000 I want to be forever proud of who I was as a man and change who I used to be. 1.00

01:40:12.000 The liar, the insecure guy, the guy who can, whatever.

01:40:15.000 I want to be proud.

01:40:16.000 If I die now, if I die at 80, if I die at 90, 100, I want to look at myself and say, proud of myself.

01:40:21.000 Don't you think that also, like what we're saying, that because you've gone through so much struggle, you appreciate happiness, true happiness?

01:40:28.000 Do you think that you appreciate discipline because you weren't disciplined?

01:40:32.000 Do you think you appreciate the hard work you put in because you used to be weak?

01:40:35.000 Yes, I appreciate self-discipline.

01:40:37.000 Yes. 1.00

01:40:38.000 I never had, and the crazy thing about what, you know, you say that, I didn't have a motherfucker come wake me up at 3 o'clock in the fucking morning and say, hey, you gotta get your shit in. 1.00

01:40:46.000 I had no trainer. 0.99

01:40:47.000 I didn't have a nutritionist.

01:40:50.000 It was the self-discipline that I had to survive.

01:40:53.000 Not survive.

01:40:53.000 I was weak.

01:40:54.000 To thrive.

01:40:57.000 No one said, hey man, you're 297 pounds, man.

01:41:00.000 I want to help you out. 0.99

01:41:02.000 Hey man, you're not smart. 0.96

01:41:04.000 I'm gonna help you out. 1.00

01:41:07.000 I had to work at all this shit. 0.98

01:41:09.000 I had to overcome, and it self-disciplines everything. 0.99

01:41:16.000 If you don't have it, I don't look at you right, because I know you're capable of more.

01:41:19.000 It's not discipline so much for me.

01:41:21.000 It's all on you.

01:41:23.000 It's all on you.

01:41:25.000 The self part is what's big.

01:41:27.000 We need someone to hold people accountable. 1.00

01:41:31.000 Fuck that shit, man. 1.00

01:41:33.000 Fuck that shit. 1.00

01:41:33.000 We count on people too much to get us through shit. 1.00

01:41:37.000 And we look to our right, we look to our left, we're looking for help. 0.99

01:41:40.000 And if you can build that self, you can build that total accountability in one's self.

01:41:46.000 And it's not about being selfish.

01:41:48.000 I'm trying to create a better me so hopefully people who are hearing this or taking it the right way can say, I can run a mile. 0.89

01:41:56.000 Ain't about running 205 fucking miles, doing four, being a city. 0.99

01:41:59.000 Ain't about all that shit. 1.00

01:42:00.000 Shit doesn't matter. 1.00

01:42:01.000 I want you to see how fucking far you can go. 1.00

01:42:05.000 And that's all it's about. 0.99

01:42:06.000 Yourself.

01:42:07.000 And that's where it all comes from.

01:42:09.000 Well, listen, I guarantee you've already done that.

01:42:11.000 What you experienced from watching that television show and what got you out the door, what got you to sort of take the first steps to change your life, what you experienced by watching Rocky, those moments of inspiration, those are critical for people.

01:42:27.000 They need to know that someone's done something, that someone's done something that's greater than what they could imagine themselves doing, and they want to take a Step towards trying to be better that that that inspiration is gigantic and sometimes it comes across as corny You know people read it too much of it online it becomes It drowns out you lose that the meaning gets lost I mean there's and there's a lot of posers There's a lot of people are out there that are they're pretending that they're trying to offer up inspiration or a true

01:42:57.000 honest account of their experiences but really what they're trying to do is say something that's gonna get likes and Right.

01:43:03.000 You know, they're trying to say things that they think people are going to go, yeah, double high five.

01:43:08.000 Right.

01:43:08.000 You know, there's a thing that people are doing where they're just trying to just get social cred.

01:43:14.000 That's it.

01:43:14.000 That's what social media is, man.

01:43:16.000 I'm going to paint you the picture of my fake life.

01:43:18.000 Right, right, right. 0.99

01:43:20.000 I paint you a picture of my fucking real life. 0.99

01:43:22.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:43:22.000 Period. 1.00

01:43:23.000 Like it or not, man.

01:43:24.000 But that real life is fuel for people.

01:43:27.000 It's fuel for me. 1.00

01:43:29.000 I mean, I love that shit. 1.00

01:43:30.000 I live off of it. 1.00

01:43:31.000 There's a lot of people that I follow online, and you're one of them, that I can get something out of that.

01:43:37.000 I could watch a short clip of you talking. 0.79

01:43:39.000 I'm sure clips of this podcast, people are going to play these clips and go for fucking crazy runs afterwards. 0.97

01:43:44.000 Right. 0.95

01:43:45.000 Well, I hope so. 1.00

01:43:46.000 Fuck yeah, they're gonna. 1.00

01:43:47.000 You don't even have to hope. 1.00

01:43:48.000 It's gonna happen.

01:43:49.000 That's good.

01:43:50.000 What is this business you're doing?

01:43:52.000 Well, it's my own.

01:43:53.000 Goggins, LLC. Basically, I'm invested in myself.

01:43:58.000 I'm invested in myself, and I hope that this story can change somebody's life.

01:44:06.000 Not to be me, because it ain't about me. 0.60

01:44:08.000 I try to be as real as I can, because we're all fucking suffering in this world. 0.55

01:44:13.000 We're all hurting. 0.90

01:44:14.000 And I try to... 0.99

01:44:15.000 Take away all titles you want to give me and let you know that I did not come from that shit. 1.00

01:44:19.000 That's why I have to be so authentic and so real about my own insecurities, my own faults, just being a fucked up person. 0.99

01:44:26.000 I'm not the best at anything. 0.98

01:44:27.000 I'm not gifted.

01:44:30.000 I'm just driven.

01:44:31.000 And it's all about trying to share that message with people.

01:44:35.000 This is all about, you know, I speak to a lot of people.

01:44:38.000 And that's what I do now.

01:44:40.000 And how are you doing it as a business?

01:44:42.000 I do some motivational speaking. 0.98

01:44:44.000 But, you know, right now, I'm not really trying to make a lot of fucking money. 0.86

01:44:48.000 I'm just trying to build a brand as authentic as possible. 0.93

01:44:50.000 Because I don't want to build it too fast. 0.99

01:44:53.000 Because my biggest fear in life is people can read right through a motherfucker that's not real. 0.99

01:44:58.000 I do it all the time. 0.98

01:45:00.000 Like, a lot of people have these great quotes and they mass-produce.

01:45:04.000 I can't mass-produce something, man.

01:45:06.000 Right. 1.00

01:45:07.000 And they have these great quotes and shit, but are you living that, motherfucker? 1.00

01:45:11.000 What you just quoted, and how powerful it may sound, are you getting up every fucking morning? 1.00

01:45:16.000 I'm not working out, whatever. 0.99

01:45:18.000 Are you really getting the fuck after? 0.99

01:45:20.000 Are you just talking to motivate people? 0.99

01:45:22.000 Right.

01:45:22.000 And I don't want to be that guy.

01:45:24.000 Or are you talking to pretend that you're really getting after it?

01:45:26.000 Exactly.

01:45:26.000 And a lot of people make this big money over here on the side, which I haven't made a lot.

01:45:30.000 And they talk this shit. 0.99

01:45:33.000 And they're all this and it's gone. 1.00

01:45:35.000 They're not authentic at all, man. 1.00

01:45:37.000 It's all this shit. 1.00

01:45:38.000 And I read it and I'm like, man, this guy ain't bullshit. 1.00

01:45:42.000 Bullshit, man. 1.00

01:45:42.000 Fucking wake up, get after it, live what you're saying. 1.00

01:45:45.000 And then it comes, people can see. 1.00

01:45:48.000 When I talk, the reason I talk so fucking just passionate, because I'm reliving my fucking life. 0.98

01:45:54.000 I'm reliving this morning when I got up. 1.00

01:45:56.000 I didn't want to do that shit. 0.99

01:45:57.000 I'm reliving everything I did and I can't speak to you like all calm and shit. 1.00

01:46:02.000 Shit sucks. 1.00

01:46:03.000 It sucks, man. 1.00

01:46:04.000 So whenever I start talking about like after this podcast, you'll see man. 0.98

01:46:07.000 God, you're so calm right now. 0.99

01:46:09.000 What the fuck is wrong with you? 1.00

01:46:11.000 I'm not going back through that shit, man. 1.00

01:46:13.000 I'm not going back through the suffering and shit that it took to become who I am today. 1.00

01:46:17.000 So I'm slowly trying to build this brand to the point where I can slowly hopefully make people from motivated to driven because motivation is crap. 1.00

01:46:25.000 It's shit. 1.00

01:46:26.000 People right now, maybe listen to this shit, they'll be motivated to go run. 1.00

01:46:29.000 If it's cold somewhere where they're at, a lot of motherfuckers will shut that door and go back inside. 1.00

01:46:33.000 That's motivation. 0.99

01:46:35.000 It comes and go as how you feel.

01:46:38.000 If you and your wife are good, if you and your kids are good, if you're good at work, you're motivated. 1.00

01:46:43.000 I like a motherfucker whose life is imploded. 1.00

01:46:47.000 Ain't got shit in life and says, I still gotta fucking get after it today, man. 1.00

01:46:53.000 That's what it's about. 0.99

01:46:53.000 So that's when you move from motivation to driven to obsessed. 0.99

01:46:57.000 And I want people to realize, once you get to this person over here, the driven and obsessed part, you're unstoppable.

01:47:03.000 This commitment that you have to authenticity is one of the reasons why people are connected to what your message is.

01:47:10.000 That's one of the reasons why what you're saying, you don't want to grow it too fast. 0.99

01:47:13.000 You don't want it to be bullshit. 0.99

01:47:14.000 You're terrified of that thing, just like we were talking about with weak people. 1.00

01:47:18.000 You're terrified of seeing that weakness in yourself.

01:47:20.000 We all see that. 1.00

01:47:22.000 We've all seen motivational things that are bullshit. 0.97

01:47:25.000 We've all talked to people that are talking, and you realize there's nothing really... 0.98

01:47:29.000 That they're not really connected to their words.

01:47:32.000 Their words are just a bunch of words they've pieced together because they sound like something that someone who's enlightened on the subject would say.

01:47:40.000 Right.

01:47:41.000 Yeah, it doesn't connect at all.

01:47:44.000 So your struggle now is to try to figure out how to stay you and get the message out, but still be fully connected to that message.

01:47:52.000 Right.

01:47:52.000 And it's not so much a struggle, because I'm not really about...

01:48:01.000 I'm not driven by the business.

01:48:02.000 I'm not driven by trying to be...

01:48:03.000 I make a very small salary from being retired from the military.

01:48:07.000 That's all I need.

01:48:09.000 So I'm not fast to... 0.99

01:48:10.000 I'm a minimalist motherfucker. 1.00

01:48:13.000 Give me a backpack a fucking ground to sleep on and a pull-up bar and a fucking some running shoes and a subway sandwich or some shit and I'm fucking straight. 1.00

01:48:22.000 So it's um I believe in patience. 0.99

01:48:25.000 I'm a patient dude.

01:48:27.000 I can watch the piece of grass grow for 20 years because I know that this is how you get somewhere in life by being that monk-like mentality And being able to watch something grow very calmly, patiently.

01:48:42.000 And that's all I'm doing right now.

01:48:44.000 It's not about money.

01:48:45.000 It's not about people knowing me.

01:48:46.000 I don't care if you like me.

01:48:47.000 Whoever wants to hear this, it's out there.

01:48:49.000 It's out there.

01:48:50.000 So your goal is to grow this?

01:48:52.000 Right.

01:48:53.000 Slowly.

01:48:53.000 Very slowly.

01:48:55.000 And your goal is to grow this in order to impact people?

01:48:59.000 Period.

01:49:00.000 That's it.

01:49:00.000 It's not about me.

01:49:02.000 What do you get out of impacting people?

01:49:07.000 It's a good question.

01:49:08.000 I don't get anything out of it.

01:49:10.000 I'm a tool.

01:49:11.000 But you must get something.

01:49:12.000 There must be personal satisfaction.

01:49:14.000 There must be a connection to those people.

01:49:16.000 It must be enriching to you.

01:49:18.000 It's hard to connect with people because there's quite a few now that are coming in.

01:49:22.000 Right.

01:49:23.000 It's my duty.

01:49:25.000 It's my duty to share.

01:49:27.000 It's kind of like somebody who discovered a new earth, you know, and discovered the people in the water source and the food source. 0.99

01:49:37.000 I discovered a whole other part of your fucking brain that a lot of people don't even know about. 0.84

01:49:45.000 It's my job by being on this journey and being a discovery person and being the person that maybe I didn't discover this part. 0.99

01:49:52.000 I discovered a very important part that I haven't met many people that have discovered this part.

01:49:57.000 I'm sure there's a lot out there.

01:49:59.000 But it's my job now to take these weak people in the category that I was in and say, uh-uh. 0.99

01:50:05.000 Stop reading the bullshit. 1.00

01:50:07.000 Stop listening to the bullshit. 1.00

01:50:09.000 And if my story of success can impact somebody, it is my job, it's my duty to share the story. 1.00

01:50:15.000 As much as I'm not really fond of it, I'm the kind of guy that wants to sit in the fucking room and just be me. 0.95

01:50:22.000 Just be me, alone, by myself. 0.98

01:50:25.000 It's who I am. 1.00

01:50:27.000 But I have to get uncomfortable and tell people all this shit. 0.99

01:50:30.000 You think it feels good to tell people about it. 0.99

01:50:32.000 I had a fourth grade reading level in high school.

01:50:34.000 I stuttered. 1.00

01:50:35.000 I lied to people to be their fucking friends. 0.99

01:50:39.000 It doesn't feel good. 0.99

01:50:40.000 It doesn't feel good at all. 0.99

01:50:41.000 But maybe somebody's doing the same shit. 1.00

01:50:45.000 And maybe they can realize, wow, that motherfucker was a piece of shit. 1.00

01:50:49.000 And he fucking now is a Navy SEAL retired guy and runs these miles and was 297 pounds and pathetic fucker. 1.00

01:50:58.000 And wow. 1.00

01:50:59.000 And people say, why are you talking? 0.99

01:51:00.000 It's the fucking truth. 1.00

01:51:02.000 I was a fucking pathetic motherfucker, man. 1.00

01:51:05.000 People cannot say that to themselves. 1.00

01:51:07.000 We have to choose these great fucking magical words that make people feel good. 0.97

01:51:13.000 Tell yourself the truth. 1.00

01:51:15.000 If someone calls you fucking fat, they may be bullying you, but you might be fucking fat. 1.00

01:51:22.000 If someone calls you dumb, it's mean, but you might be fucking dumb. 1.00

01:51:27.000 It's life, man. 1.00

01:51:28.000 Take it for what it's worth and change it.

01:51:31.000 And that terrible feeling when someone does tell you that you're fat, you can use that as fuel.

01:51:36.000 As fuel.

01:51:37.000 Period.

01:51:38.000 And that's all this is about. 0.99

01:51:39.000 And where it goes, if it goes somewhere and whatever, you know, I don't give a shit. 0.99

01:51:46.000 Well, you said something that I think of when I run. 0.99

01:51:49.000 And it's that most people quit at 40%.

01:51:51.000 That's it.

01:51:51.000 That's my 40% rule, man.

01:51:53.000 I love that quote.

01:51:54.000 That's my 40% rule, man.

01:51:55.000 And I really developed that through my heart surgeries and I developed that through that first 100-mile run.

01:52:01.000 I thought I had given 100%. 0.99

01:52:04.000 When I was on that chair at mile 70, I was fucked up. 0.98

01:52:06.000 I thought I'd give it 100%. 0.97

01:52:08.000 And to go that last, I go, man, I wasn't even near 100%.

01:52:15.000 So I came up with this thing called the 40% rule. 0.89

01:52:18.000 It's basically where you...

01:52:19.000 It's like a car.

01:52:21.000 You put a governor on a car.

01:52:23.000 And they say the car can go 130. That governor stops the car at 91. And you're driving thinking, man, I want to fucking floor it, but I can't go any faster.

01:52:32.000 We do that to our brain. 0.99

01:52:33.000 We put a governor in our brain.

01:52:34.000 The second we feel pain, discomfort, suffering, all those words that we hate to say because we have this happy, peaceful world we live in now, we stop.

01:52:43.000 We slow down.

01:52:45.000 And if you can get through these different barriers and gain 5%, 2%, 3%, that 40% becomes 60. That 60% becomes 70, 80, and 90. And then you'll hopefully one day near 100. I don't know many people who probably add 100. I mean,

01:53:00.000 we think we're there, but there's so much more.

01:53:01.000 Isn't 100 a death's door, though?

01:53:04.000 I love that.

01:53:05.000 I think it's true.

01:53:06.000 I think that's 100% true.

01:53:08.000 I think when you were laying in a tub, you had knocked on the door.

01:53:10.000 That is 100% true.

01:53:13.000 That is 100% true.

01:53:15.000 I didn't give 100% in that 101 mile run I did for the first time.

01:53:19.000 So that's the scary thing.

01:53:21.000 That's the scariest thing in the world.

01:53:23.000 I didn't die.

01:53:24.000 You probably gave 99.99999 and got out of there with your life.

01:53:29.000 I guarantee it.

01:53:31.000 I guarantee it.

01:53:33.000 Man, dude, I don't know how to end this any better than that.

01:53:36.000 So let's just wrap this up.

01:53:38.000 If people want to find your stuff, what's the best place to go and look for it?

01:53:43.000 I'm just at David Goggins, man.

01:53:45.000 Social media, on Instagram, Facebook.

01:53:47.000 I don't tweet that much stuff out because I write messages.

01:53:53.000 And I always link on Twitter to my Facebook and Instagram, but it's just at David Goggins.

01:53:59.000 It was an honor and a privilege, brother.

01:54:01.000 Thank you very much, man.

01:54:02.000 I really, really appreciate it.

01:54:03.000 Thank you.

01:54:03.000 Dave and Goggins, ladies and gentlemen.

01:54:05.000 Go after it, you motherfuckers! 1.00

01:54:07.000 Come on! 1.00

01:54:10.000 Dude, if that doesn't fire people up...

The Joe Rogan Experience - February 19, 2018

Joe Rogan Experience #1080 - David Goggins

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