Fitness guru, author, influencer and retired Navy SEAL David Goggins wanted to get back into endurance racing after a five-year layoff.
To wade back into those challenging waters, the 50-year-old native of the Buffalo area selected the Bigfoot 200, a grueling 200-mile trek through the Washington wilderness. This race demands participants to navigate 44,000 feet of elevation changes, provided they complete the intense course.
Goggins not only completed the course near Mount St. Helens, but also managed to do so within 66 hours, maintaining a steady pace of 4.1mph. He spent two days on the move along with an additional 20 hours for recovery, as indicated by the official race tracking data.
Surprisingly, Goggins was not the first finisher overall in the 50-59 age category. Jeff Price, aged 55, completed the race in just under 60 hours, while 57-year-old Wes Ritter achieved the feat in 61 hours and 46 minutes.
However, as often is true with endurance sports, the ranked place and finishing time are of lesser importance compared to the achievement of completing the race — or as Goggins perceives it, the courage to participate in the race at all.
“This past weekend was the Bigfoot 200 endurance event. I haven’t participated in a race of any distance in five years, so it felt rewarding to renew my certification,” he shared online. “This picture was taken at the finish line.”
Goggins not only finished but completed the event in 66 hours, maintaining a pace of 4.1mph while engaging in two days of activity and an additional 20 hours resting, according to official race data.
‘I want to congratulate all of the finishers of the Bigfoot 200,’ he continued. ‘It’s truly an epic race that will break you the f*** off if you aren’t ready for it.
‘More importantly, I want to congratulate those who signed up but didn’t finish the race. Having the courage to sign up for a race like this sets you apart from so many people in this world.
‘You may not have made it to the finish line, but along your journey at Bigfoot, you found out so much about yourself. You reached beyond your limits to get as far as you could and now you will know the next time you show up to a race like that, you now have the knowledge to finish it.
‘These races aren’t about winning or losing or even finishing. It’s exploring oneself and the human potential that lies within all of us.
‘No matter what place you came in or if you DNF’d, you came out a better person.’
Goggins, 50, is a retired Navy SEAL who helps raise money for the families of veterans
Goggins ended his uplifting message with his catch phrase: ‘Stay hard!’
The top time in this year’s Bigfoot 200 belonged to Kilian Korth, a 30-year-old who finished in 45:03 after previously winning a similar 200-mile event in Tahoe earlier this year.
Goggins first gained notoriety around 2005 when he began long-distance running to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which raises scholarship money for the families of fallen soldiers.
Last year, Goggins sued Amazon for selling what he alleges are bootleg copies of his books. Goggins is seeking to recoup damages from the allegedly counterfeit sales.
Goggins has also trained elite athletes including MMA star Tony Ferguson, prior to his fight against Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett at UFC296.
Ferguson had claimed that Goggins had ‘damn near broke me’, according to MMA Weekly.com, during his preparation for the bout.
Goggins did take some criticism in October for praising an intense workout video involving a young martial arts student. Many felt the extreme training techniques bordered on child abuse, but Goggins was excited to see the young man balancing a log on his shoulders as he stood with his feet on two separate logs.
‘I love this f***ing kid!,’ Goggins began.
‘While most of you won’t agree with the mental and physical training this kid is going through, what will come out the other side will be a motherf***er you do not want to f*** with!’
