Charlie Engle (marathoner)

Charlie Engle (born September 20, 1962) is an ultramarathon runner who appeared in the documentary Running the Sahara.[1]

Early life and education

Engle was born on September 20, 1962, to mother Rebecca Ranson and father Richard Engle. His parents were students from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when Engle was born. Engle's mother was aiming to be a playwright, while his father majored in English. His father had played college basketball in his freshman year and Engle's grandfather on his mother's side was Dale Ranson, a prominent track and field coach at UNC. Both of Engle's parents were members of the hippie movement and Engle attended protests against the Vietnam War as a child. He was a year old when his parents divorced. Engle described his parents as being free-spirited and said they encouraged him to be open-minded. When he was a teenager, Engle's mother came out to him as a lesbian, though he indicated that he had already known. In eighth grade, Engle ran a mile in under five minutes for the first time.[1] After living in California for a time, Engle moved to Southern Pines, North Carolina with his father and stepmother in 1976 and began attending Pinecrest High School.[2] As the lead quarterback for the football team, Engle drew attention from college recruiters. He eventually decided against pursuing football in favor of running, but his times were not enough for collegiate-level competition.[1]

Engle enrolled in UNC like his parents, but soon became addicted to alcohol and cocaine, which caused him to falter in his academics.[2] During Engle's junior year his father, who was then living in Seattle, came to pick Engle up after a concerned call from one of Engle's fraternity members. Engle dropped out of college and went to California to live with his father and stepmother. He continued using cocaine, occasionally buying it with money taken from a Baskin-Robbins location he operated for his father, but kept pursuing professional running and would avoid using cocaine when he needed to train for competitions.[1] Engle began working as a car salesman for a Toyota dealership and then a sales manager for a Ford dealer, before starting his own car dent repair business specializing in hail damage.[3] While Engle was working in Wichita, Kansas, one of his cocaine binges ended with his car being involved in a shooting on July 23, 1992. Engle began regularly attending a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that day and overcame his addiction. He frequently mentions that day as helping motivate him, stating to Runner's World: "That was my lowest low. The day when I woke up."[1][4]

Career

Still struggling with his addiction, Engle started running marathons in 1989.[1] His first was the Big Sur marathon and he ran in several more marathons, including the Boston Marathon, before getting sober. Engle entered his first ultra-marathon by accident in Brisbane, Australia, in 1996, thinking he was entering a 10K event. He won and began entering endurance competitions around the world.[3] After seeing an Eco-Challenge on the Discovery Channel, Engle registered to participate in one of the events.[1] He described himself as a "documentary filmmaker" despite having limited experience in the hopes that the statement would be self-fulfilling. When Engle was accepted into the Borneo Eco-Challenge he was asked by CBS about having him shoot footage of the event for the series 48 Hours, which ended up using eleven minutes of footage that Engle shot.[3][1] Following the Borneo challenge, Engle went on several weeks later to complete the annual Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.[4]

His camerawork for 48 Hours helped Engle get a job as part of the camera crew for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and eventually he became a producer for the show. During his time with the show, Engle continued doing work in car dent repair and continued competing in endurance events. The contacts he had developed in the entertainment industry from working on Extreme Makeover helped Engle get director James Moll to film a documentary of a Sahara expedition he was planning with two other runners.[1][3]

Personal life

Engle married his wife, Pam, in 1987 and she gave birth to their first son in 1992.[2][3] In 2010, he was convicted of 12 counts of mortgage fraud. He served 16 months in federal prison in Beckley, West Virginia.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Pearlman, Jeff (10 March 2008). "Charlie Engle: Endurance Junkie". Runner's World. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Sinclair, David (21 June 2012). "Former Pinecrest Star Released From Prison". The Pilot. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Higginbotham, Adam (September 2011). "Nowhere to Run". Men's Journal. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Charlie Engle, Addicted to Adventure". Sigma Phi Epsilon. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  5. ↑ McCue, Matt (30 November 2012). "Ultrarunner Charlie Engle Makes Post-Prison Plans". Runners World. Retrieved 3 April 2014.

External links