Road running is very hard on your body and is very monotonous. I was running cross-country and just kept getting injured. So I backed off of running and questioned, “Man, is this really the thing that I want to challenge myself in, if I am going to destroy my knees after two or three years?”

I was working in Hawaii a few years later, and I'd only done two marathons at that point – they were just kind of miserable. I wasn't really enjoying myself. My knees were shot. I was running in like double-knee sleeves and it didn't seem like the best thing to be doing.

But a friend of mine, who wanted to see me continue to push myself, held a fundraiser to help purchase a home, which had been a place of gathering for the military base nearby. They wanted this organization to raise funds to purchase it, so it could stay within the community, and continue to serve that purpose. It had been an important place for me when I was there.

So it was like 50 miles for a fellowship, and that was more appealing to me than continuing to do the marathons that I'd been doing. The funny thing was that all of my training for that was on the road because in Hawaii the trails are insane, and you really can't train on them.

But what relit the spark was this idea of moving up in distance and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.The question after that was like, "Well, what about 100 miles?"


[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]