A Letter to David Goggins
It was 95 degrees, and the sun was blazing down on my sweaty neck and shoulders. I was on all fours, staring at the ground. My stomach didn’t feel great, but this was helping. I looked up at my cousin, “The waters not too bad actually,” I said. I stood up next to the lawn sprinkler. He knelt and took a turn, trying to catch the jet of water in his mouth. I looked around - nobody else was on the street in this heat. But here we were, barefoot, shirtless, and drinking from some stranger’s lawn sprinkler. I was tired, my cousin and training partner, Thomas was starting to slow down too, but this would be my longest barefoot run ever.
“Listen, man,” I said, as he sipped from the sprinkler. I was doing mental math: we had two miles left till our intended goal of 10 miles, but a new idea had occurred to me. I wiped the water from my mouth and turned to him, “If we do this loop two more times, we can say we finished a half-marathon.” Thomas winced at me, sweat and water dripping from his face. My cousin isn’t a quitter, and like me, hardly ever does he back down from a challenge. Ten miles is a cool number and all, but a half-marathon is more impressive. I knew we weren’t going to back down, but it didn’t mean we were going to enjoy it. “Oh God,” he said. And we kept running.
That hot summer run took a few more sprinkler stops before we finished, and while I’m proud of the accomplishment itself, it’s the training behind that I’m truly proud of. You see, my 4x4x48 story doesn’t start last Friday night, on March 5th. It starts this past July when my cousin and I listened to the “Can’t Hurt Me” audiobook. I’ve been running barefoot for a few years, but David’s story completely changed the way I view discipline. I used to run a couple days a week, stop for a month, then get back to the bi-weekly run. But that changed after listening to the book. Goggins inspired me to dig deeper to see what I was truly capable of, and I started running daily. They started as small, mile-and-a-half runs, but slowly I upped the mileage. Our normal course is a 2.5-mile loop which I’ve now run well over 100 times. On that hot day we ran the half-marathon, we ran the loop 6 times, and while it was tough – we didn’t eat breakfast and I got heatstroke - it was simply one part of the journey.
Another way to challenge myself was with my mornings. Goggins conquered his, and I decided that was something I needed to do too. So I added swimming at 5 AM in addition to my barefoot runs. Inspired by BUDS, and as an amateur freediver, breath holds became part of the repertoire: I’ve worked up to a 75m no-breath swim in the pool and can do 50m any day of the week. Now that we’ve been in winter, I dunk regularly in the cold pool and frozen pond, but the priority remains to be running.
While I’ve been running barefoot on and off for years, over the past nine months I’ve been running six days a week, thanks to “Can’t Hurt Me.” In the past few months, I’ve done several 15 milers, a couple 18 milers, and a 20 miler, all barefoot. So when David posted the 4x4x48 challenge, there was no hesitation in my mind. My cousin Thomas asked “Did you see Goggin’s post?,” and I nodded - we would do this too. There was no question, no discussion - we were in. Even my cousin Isaac flew across the country to join us. I can confidently say that only because of the past few years, and in particular, the past 9 months of training, that I was able to run the entirety of the challenge barefoot. Additionally, after posting my run live to Instagram (see my highlights), Thomas, Isaac, and I raised over $1500 for CC’s Angels – dedicated to helping women survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
In some ways, the fundraiser was more intimidating than the run, I’ve never organized one before. But taking on challenges has never been something I’ve struggled with. I love to try new things whether it's playing the piano, skateboarding, tracking wildlife, or barefoot running. I’m not stuck in a box, I’m not afraid to push on people’s perceptions of me and I’m not afraid to fail, unlike most people.
And while it’s one thing to start a new hobby, run more regularly, or start a fundraiser, it’s the underlying mindset that causes great changes in one’s life. It actively seeks challenges and pushes for one’s dream. And it’s this mindset that I’m most grateful for. For Goggins, it led him to the SEALS - most people wouldn’t even entertain the thought. But that’s what I’m trying to say: I am someone who can entertain these thoughts. My dream, however, isn’t to be a SEAL, but to be an explorer of wild places, and meeting remote tribes and wildlife. So I decided to chase this, full force. A year-and-a-half ago I found myself in Zimbabwe, tracking lions with a native bushman. I was there with people who could help me further my vision - Steve Irwin’s apprentice, biologists, and a NatGeo film crew. But that trip didn’t happen easily. Needless to say, while I haven’t been afraid to chase after my destiny, Goggins’ story has made me pursue it even more relentlessly - and to take souls along the way - like this event with barefoot running.
Photo by Nicholas Vega