David Goggins, the former Navy Seal turned ultra marathoner and motivational speaker, introduced a workout he does to get ready for his longer ultras. Well, this run four miles every four hours for 48 hours morphed into challenge/fundraiser a few years ago and started showing up on people’s social media last year.
Coming off a six month hiatus with a broken foot and two months of hampered training, I decided that I would run the 4 x 4 x 48. The only plan I had for it was that I had nothing to do the entire weekend.
Since I have a running website, I decided that I would reach out to a few people who are also “accepted the challenge” and tell their stories (as best I can).
On March 5th at 4:00 PM, Brett Mason, from “The Somewhat Coherent Ramblings of a Semi-lucid Runner” fame, was embarking on his second Goggins Challenge. Brett has been averaging 70-80 miles per week, so he said that the mileage wasn’t a problem it was the lack of quality sleep. Being temperatures were in the 20’s most of that weekend in Pittsburgh, he changed into clean, warm clothes after each run. Brett said the easiest part of the challenge was the actual running and the hardest run of his weekend was the third one. After the 8:00 PM run, he had some, in his words, “meat sauce” and a beer, and messed his stomach up during the midnight run.
An hour later, Jamie Sears, 26, from Butler, PA, was starting. The “California Badass” as she is known in her running club, the Butler County Milers, has been averaging 25-30 miles per week and decided to give it a shot. She is in training for the Glacier Ridge 50K. Along with her fiance, Sean Harcar and friend, Mike Jones they started on Friday afternoon, 5:00 at approximately 9:30 pace. After her third run, at 2:00 AM, she delivered papers for the Butler Eagle.
Meanwhile, in Charlotte, NC, Brandon Mulligan, a 28 year old fire fighter, was starting his “journey” on Friday at 11:00 PM, to coincide with the times that the national Goggins Challenge was taking place. Brandon ran his first four miles in 26:38 (6:37 pace), he is training for the Wilmington, (NC) Marathon. He averaged 6:42 per mile for the entire challenge, all 48 miles.
A week later, on March 12th, at 4:00 PM, yours truly started his 48 mile trek. I had the luxury of running on the beach, with my friend, Dennis. We completed the first leg in 32:31. Afterwards, Dennis brought out a few Guinnesses, we drank those, left the beach and found out his car a gotten towed. We spent the next 90 minutes tacking down his car, and finally found it and he paid the fine (plus towing). Then I ate a light sit down dinner and relaxed until 8:00.
A day later, on March 13th, at 4:00 PM, Jennifer Eckels started her “weekend”. The 25 year old from Finleyville, PA, ran a week later, as she was quarantined because of Covid. Jennifer ran a different course every four hours, and most of the time she drove 10-15 minutes to get there.
Most of Brett’s miles were around 8:00 pace in the night time and under 7:00 in the daylight, on several different courses. Brett and his son, Brayden decided to do 100 push ups after every four mile run. His meals consisted of mostly snacking (bananas, almonds and protein bars) but ate a sit down egg breakfast both mornings.
Jamie ran the daytime legs on the Freeport Trail and the night time ones in downtown Butler (PA). She says that she really slowed on the 10th and 11th runs, slowing to a 14 minute per mile pace. She ate a few meals at restaurants, pancakes on Saturday morning and enchiladas later that day (yes, you read that correctly, enchiladas!)
Brandon said his mentally toughest runs were at 11:00 PM and 3:00 AM of the second night, as was the case with everyone that I talked to (including myself). He finished his lastrun at his parents house where he had his entire family there cheering him on. Brandon raised over $1,000 for Carolina Brotherhood, a charity that supports first responder families in North Carolina. Great work, Brandon!
My runs were mostly on autopilot, averaging about 8:30 per mile in the dark and 7:50 when it was light. However; at 3:20, Saturday afternoon, Dennis walked into my house and woke me (I was sleeping on the floor) and said we were running from Club Seats (his favorite bar). After my 4:00 PM run, we proceeded to have a few Guinnesses (do you see a pattern here with Dennis?). My worst runs were definitely in the dark, especially when I should be sleeping.
Ms. Eckels said that sleep was “awful” and could only manage 60 minutes at most between runs, as she set her alarm 20 minutes before each run. She averaged 40 minutes on her road courses and 54 minutes on the single track trails. She was the only one that said the second night was easier than the first, in fact she did a 13th run for a total of 52 miles.
In conclusion, there were five different people, with five different reasons to complete the challenge. But the only definitive conclusion that I can take away after talking with everyone and analyzing the data; is that the three guys took way more showers than the two women.
N of 1 Running 