Dean Karnazes

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Dean Karnazes (b. Constantine Karnazes August 23, 1962) (pronounced car-NAH-sis), is a Greek-American ultramarathon runner, and author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner which details ultra endurance running for the general public.^[1]^[2] In 2004, Karnazes was named one of GQ's "Best Bodies of the Year".

In 1995, Karnazes founded Energy Well Natural Foods in San Francisco and he remains president of the company, now called Good Health Natural Foods.^[3]He holds graduate degrees in Science and Business. Karnazes resides in San Francisco, California, with his wife, Julie, and two children, Alexandria and Nicholas.^[4] Karnazes is also a regular columnist for Men's Health.^[2]

1 Overview
2 Racing and Endurance
- 2.1 North Face Endurance 50
- 2.2 South Pole Marathon Controversy
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Overview

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Karnazes grew up in Los Angeles, the oldest of three children in a working-class family. His father worked two jobs to make ends meet. Karnazes' earliest memories are of running home from kindergarten. He took up running so that he wouldn’t have to burden his mother with rides home from school every day.

At first, Karnazes ran direct routes from school to his home. Later, he began to run diversionary routes that would extend his run and take him into uncharted territory. This gave him a sense of freedom and exploration that school never did.^[2] By third grade he was participating in and organizing short running events with other kids. As Karnazes grew older, he began testing his limits: by age eleven he had hiked rim-to-rim across the Grand Canyon and had climbed Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States; by age 12 he completed 40-mile bike rides for fun.

In junior high, Karnazes met Jack McTavish, his new track coach, a former military man who could do more push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups than anyone in his platoon. McTavish became Karnazes’ mentor and introduced him to the appeal of long-distance running. Although McTavish spoke very few words, his basic running instructions were simply: "Go out harder and finish harder." Using this motto as a basis, that season, Karnazes won the one-mile California State Long-Distance Championship, held on the legendary Mount Sac track. At the end of the race, coach McTavish commented "Good work son, how'd it feel?" To this Karnazes replied, "Well, going out hard was the right thing to do. It felt pretty good." After kicking some dirt around with his feet, the coach replied:

“

If it felt good, you didn’t push hard enough. It’s supposed to hurt like hell.

”

A week after the race, Karnazes' father's job was transferred to San Clemente. These were the last comments the coach ever said to Karnazes, who has stated that he lives by these words to this day.^[2]

In 1976, as a high school freshman, Karnazes joined the cross country team, under a well-liked coach, Benner Cummings. Cummings’ running theory was that running is about finding your inner peace, and so is a life well lived. His motto was "run with your heart." That season, Karnazes was awarded "Most Inspirational" team member. Karnazes also ran his first full marathon that year, a fundraiser for underprivileged children, finishing in just under six hours. He raised $105.

Nearing the end of the cross country season, Karnazes decided to join the track team. The track team coach, however, was Mr. Bilderback, an abrasive, domineering person who tended to talk down to his students. On the first day of practice, Karnazes ran a series of time trials for Bilderback in which tension erupted between the two in regards to running techniques, split times, and stride. Karnazes suggested that he didn’t need to have his split times yelled out to him. Bilderback asked "But if you don’t know what your split times are, how do you pace yourself?" To this, Karnazes replied "I run with my heart." Bilderback responded with gales of laughter. Karnazes states that he "wanted to punch the bastard" but instead walked off the track and hung up his shoes. Karnazes didn’t run again for fifteen years.^[2]

Several years after this incident, after a lot of partying, at the age of 21, Karnazes was in college at Cal Poly, where he received notice that his sister had died in a car accident, after she had lost control of her convertible. This, according to Karnazes, "left a void in his life that was unbearable". Following this event, after getting an MBA, getting married, and being in a dull career making six figures a year as a corporate executive at a pharmaceutical company, Karnazes found himself doing tequila shots on his 30th birthday at a bar near his home in San Francisco being hit on by an attractive woman who was not his wife. The company he was working for had just bought him a new Lexus. Knowing that this was not the life he had imagined for himself, he felt like he wanted to vomit. Instead, resisting the urge, he slipped out the back door, walked to his house, grabbed his running shoes, stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up his shoes, and started running. He began to sober up about 15 miles later in Daly City at which point he realized that he hadn’t had this much fun in a long time and it brought a smile to his face. After 30 miles of running he was near Santa Cruz where he came to the realization that there were untapped reservoirs within him. He describes this moment as being akin to a religious conversion. He was a born-again long-distance runner. Following this day, Karnazes decided to set out on a mission to see how far he could push himself.^[5]

[edit] Racing and Endurance

Significant race wins:

2004 Badwater Ultramarathon^[6]
2006 Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run^[7]

Running feats:

350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes without stopping (2005)^[8] - this appears to be a world record.
North Face Endurance 50: fifty marathons in fifty U.S. states in fifty consecutive days
inaugural South Pole Marathon in running shoes
148 miles in 24 hours on a treadmill^[9]
single-handedly completed the 199 mile Providian Saturn Relay six times
1000-Mile/10 Day Buckleholder at the Western States Endurance Run^[10] (i.e., better than ten twenty-four hour finishes. Note: Karnazes current count is 11 finishes in less than twenty-four hours each)

Other endurance feats:

swimming across the San Francisco Bay
mountain biking 24 straight hours

[edit] North Face Endurance 50

The North Face Endurance 50, also known as the 50/50/50, was fifty marathons in fifty states in fifty consecutive days, beginning with the Lewis and Clark Marathon in St. Louis on September 17, 2006, and finishing with the New York City Marathon on November 5th. Eight of the fifty races were official marathons. Since marathon races are typically held only on Saturdays and Sundays, on the other days Karnazes ran the courses of established marathons, but ran them unofficially. (For example, as part of the Endurance 50, Karnazes ran the course of the Boston Marathon, but not the race itself, which is held in mid-April.)

After finishing the Endurance 50, Karnazes decided to run home to San Francisco from New York City. He was expected to finish the trip in January 2007. However Karnazes chose to end this trek on December 15, 2006, in St. Charles, Missouri, to spend more time with his family.^[11]

[edit] South Pole Marathon Controversy

In January 2002, Adventure Network International (ANI) organized the first marathon at the South Pole. Five people, who had each paid $25,000 to participate, reached the start point. The race originally started on January 20, but fog and poor snow conditions forced the organizers to stop the run after a few miles. On January 22, they tried again. Don Kern and Ute Grüner decided to run a half marathon to keep the runners from being too spread out and difficult to support. Brent Weigner, Richard Donovan, and Karnazes decided to run a full marathon. Karnazes says that the group of three agreed to stick together and not compete. The others say that their agreement was to stick together for most of the run and race the last few miles. During the run, Weigner and Donovan used snowshoes that Karnazes had provided, while Karnazes wore running shoes. (They only had two pairs of snowshoes.) Donovan crossed the finish line first in 8:52:03, followed by Karnazes in 9:18:55, and Weigner in 9:20:05.^[12]

ANI initially declared that Donovan was the winner, but Doug Stoup, the race director, decided to create a runners division and a snowshoe division. Ultimately, ANI declared that all five were winners and awarded them $3,000 each. Some competitors stated that ANI was offering a $25,000 prize to the winner, but once the controversy began, ANI stated that it was only offering "up to" $25,000. Karnazes was dissatisfied with the outcome and had a falling out with Donovan. Karnazes contacted the Department of State to report that Donovan was “a non-U.S. resident acting aggressively and potentially with malicious intent toward a U.S. citizen.” ^[13] ^[14] ^[15]

Donovan filed suit against ANI, demanding that he be paid the full $25,000. In 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada awarded Donovan the outstanding prize money, plus interest and legal fees.^[16]