“Be willing to go to war with yourself,”. Words of wisdom from David Goggins, one of my favourite ultra endurance athletes. Goggins has been going to war with himself this weekend at the Moab 240, in Utah. Runners traverse desert, canyons and 2 mountain ranges over the gruelling 240 mile loop. Adding to this challenge, athletes need to manage extreme heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. After so many race cancellations this year, it’s exciting to follow a major event like Moab. Goggins is currently in 2nd place after running 194 miles over 2 days straight. 45 year old Goggins trails 36 year old Michele Graglia by 20 miles.
I discovered Goggins’ book, Can’t Hurt Me last year. I really like Goggins’ no nonsense approach to life’s challenges. Goggins recounts overcoming his abusive childhood, becoming a Navy SEAL after several unsuccessful attempts and his experiences running some of the world’s toughest ultra races including Badwater 135 and HURT 100. Goggins is inspirational however he is also extreme, he ran the Las Vegas marathon on broken legs in 2005.
Goggins has unfinished business with Moab 240. In 2nd place for most of the race in 2019, Goggins got lost and ventured 15 miles off course during the second night of the race. This proved to be a costly error, dropping Goggins down to 75th place. Undaunted, Goggins fought his way back to 9th place before having to seek medical attention for pulmonary edema at the 200 mile mark and ultimately pulling out of the race. I would love to see Goggins finish in the top 3 at the Moab 240 and I’ll be keeping a close eye on the live results.
Updated – April 11, 2021
After noticing a large amount of interest in this post, I thought that I should include the final results of Moab 240, 2020. True to his nature, Goggins continued fighting and narrowed the gap with Graglia to only 2 hours in the last 49 miles of the race. With Goggins hot on his tail and 28 miles to go, Graglia decided to take a nap on the side of the road for a few minutes. According to Trail Running magazine, the nap gave Graglia enough energy to hold off Goggins and for Graglia to power his way to the finish. In the end, Graglia won the event with a time of 61 h 43 m and Goggins came in second place with 63 h 21 m.
If anyone was concerned about Goggin’s condition after running Moab 240, here’s a video that he posted three days after the race. A word of caution, the video is motivating but it has enough f-bombs to make a trucker blush.
