EP 8: Dean Karnazes - The Road to Sparta

Pushing The Limits

Dean Karnazes is the most well known ultra marathon runner on the planet. He has written 4 books and is a New York Times bestselling author.

He was named by mens health magazine as the fittest man on the planet and by time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet. His running exploits are too many to even list but some of the highlights include running the Badwater ultra-marathon 10 times. Running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days (about which a book was written), he was the winner of the racing the planet 4 desert series, has run 350 miles non stop (i.e. going without sleep) and has done 10 x 200 mile races. He has been featured on The late show with David Letterman, on 60 minutes CBS news, CNN, ESPN and has been on the cover of Runners World. He is a US ambassador using his running talent to spread a unifying message around the world. He is an accomplished businessman and holds business and science degrees and has done post graduate work at Stanford university and has worked with a number of fortune 500 companies. He is uniquely positioned to demonstrate how the lessons from sport can be applied to business.

He is a philanthropist and has raised large amounts of money for various charities and has inspired literally hundreds of thousands of people to their feet.

His latest book is highlighted in this podcast. "The Road to Sparta" details his journey to retrace the footsteps of his ancestral countryman Pheidipides of Greece who ran 153 miles from Athens to Sparta in 490 BC to recruit the Spartans into the battle the Athenians were waging again the invading Persians. The story tells of this history but also his journey back to his roots, being of Greek descent and follows his race doing the Spartathlon the grueling modern day ultra marathon 153 miles that has to be completed in under 36 hours and goes from Athens to Sparta.

Host Lisa Tamati has run alongside Dean during ultra marathons and is uniquely qualified to interview this legendary athlete.