The transcript of Dialogos Radio’s interview with the Ultramarathon Man Dean Karnazes follows below. This interview aired on December 12-13, 2013. Find the podcast of this interview here.
MN: Joining us today on Dialogos Radio and the Dialogos Interview Series is one of the world’s most remarkable athletes, the ultramarathon man Dean Karnazes. He has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine and has accomplished a number of incredible athletic feats. Dean, thank you for joining us today.
DK: It’s a pleasure to be here. I always enjoy doing your show.
MN: Dean, you’ve accomplished a number of incredible feats…you’ve run 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states, you’ve run in the South Pole and in Death Valley, and yet, you weren’t always an athlete. You led what many would consider a normal life until you were around 30 or so. What changed and what led you to begin running?
DK: Well, I blame it on bad alcohol! I used to love to run when I was a kid, and I remember running created a great sense of freedom for me. I started running when I was 6 years old, running home from kindergarten, and I ran competitively when I was a freshman in high school, but then you’re right, I stopped running altogether for over 15 years. I was in a nightclub on my 30th birthday, celebrating as we do here in America on our 30th birthday by drinking lots of alcohol. At 11 o’clock at night I said to my friends “I’m leaving.” They said, “where are you going?” and I said “I’m going to go and run 30 miles tonight to celebrate my 30th birthday.” And of course they laughed at me, they said “you’re not a runner, you’ve been drinking, what are you thinking?” and I said “nah, I used to love to run as a kid and I want that intensity, that freedom back in my life.” So literally, at 11 o’clock at night, I walked out of a nightclub in San Francisco on my 30th birthday and ran 30 miles straight through the night.
MN: And I guess little did you know at the time what would follow and all of the different races that you would run in the next few years.
DK: I had no idea, I just knew that it felt right, even though it hurt so bad to run 30 miles after not having run for so many years. It just felt right, and I felt that the course of my life is being changed right now. I wasn’t sure where it was going to take me, like you said, but I just knew at that point that things would change. I was bored, I was a corporate guy, a businessman, I had all the things that were supposed to bring me happiness that we hear about. I had a nice car, a nice house, a nice paycheck, and I wasn’t happy. All this stuff that I thought would make me fulfilled wasn’t doing it, there was something lacking in my life, and it all changed that evening.
MN: Now some of our listeners might be wondering: how do you prepare for these races…what is your normal workout routine like and how do you gear up physically and mentally as well for all of the different races that you run?
DK: The one thing that is unique about me is that I’ve never lost the passion just for the art of running, just for the very freedom and love of physicality that running brings to people. So while I do race and I do a lot of competition, I also enjoy just going out for runs of my own, running for 3 or 4 hours by myself through the hills of California, which are very much like the hills in Greece. To me, that love of the art of running itself is what kept me in the game for so long, because so many of the competitors that I race against, they suffer burnout, so they might last 5 or maybe 10 years and then they don’t like running anymore, and that’s because they are always racing. For me, I’m doing both enjoyment pleasure runs as well as races. When I am racing, one thing that I do, and this might sound crazy to a lot of listeners, is that I run regular marathon-distance races as training runs for the longer ultramarathons that I really specialize in. I just ran the New York City marathon, for instance, and some people think, ‘wow, that’s kind of the pinnacle of endurance sports, is to complete a marathon,’ well, when I’m doing 100-200 km races, a marathon seems short. So I do a lot of marathons just as training runs, and also, I run probably 5-6 days a week when I’m training and I run upwards of 100 miles per week on a training week.
MN: Recently you came to Greece as part of the Navarino Challenge, and you ran a marathon in the regions of Arkadia and Messinia. Aside from the significance of running in your country of origin, the country where your parents are from, what was the message that you were trying to promote through the Navarino Challenge?
DK: One, it was a message of inclusion. Bringing people together of all levels and abilities to me was important. So we had elite Olympic athletes there, as well as everyday athletes, just joggers. Everybody was going at their own pace, but we were all together, and all celebrating in sport, and that to me is very Greek. The Olympics were conceived not as elitist athletes competing against each other, but places where the average citizen in Greece could come out and compete and practice and train with elite athletes. So very much in that same idea as the ancient Olympics was the Navarino Challenge. And we also wanted to highlight the importance of physical activity and good diet as far as lifestyle. Here in America, as you know, we have a tremendous problem with obesity and inactivity, especially amongst our youth, and Greece is facing that same problem, and I was hoping to issue a wake-up call that it’s not too late to change, and a great journey starts with a single footstep. So, we just encouraged everyone to come out there, no matter if you were just taking up jogging or if you were an Olympic marathoner, to come out and join in a celebration of sport and good nutrition.
MN: And of course, you are also a major proponent of the Mediterannean diet, something which you tried to highlight through the Navarino Challenge…how does the Mediterranean diet prevent childhood obesity and in general promote a healthy lifestyle?
DK: That’s a good question, and I think I should delineate between the traditional Mediterranean diet, which is the diet I prescribe, versus the current Mediterranean diet, because as you know now, a lot of the foods that the Mediterranean people eat are not so healthy. But to me, through a process of elimination, I really tuned in to the foods that I eat and how they make me feel. Do foods that I eat make me feel energetic and lively, or do they make me feel tired and lethargic? Do foods that I eat enhance and improve my performance, or do they hinder and slow down my performance? And through a process of eating those foods that helped and eliminating those foods that didn’t help, I came to a very traditional Mediterranean diet. I thought “hah, so funny, I’ve gone back to my roots!” After experimenting with every possible diet on the planet, I’ve come to the Mediterranean diet as the most healthy and most beneficial for both general feelings of health and for sports performance. So I very much advocate this type of diet both here in America and in Greece.
MN: And what does the traditional Mediterranean diet consist of, for you?
DK: Well thankfully I live in San Francisco…seafood is very important in the Mediterranean diet and it’s very important to me, so fresh fish is a very important component. Along with that, there’s lots of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, there’s olives and olive oils, that’s for monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, which is one of the healthiest fats on earth. Lots of vitamins and minerals through good food, natural foods, unprocessed foods. I don’t eat anything that comes out of a bag, I eat primarily foods that you could pick in a garden or that you could catch while swimming or in the ocean. That’s basically the constituents of a Mediterranean diet. It’s a very simple diet, but I also use a lot of spices in my diet…paprika, oregano, basil, as well as fresh-squeezed lemon. So it’s not a bland diet at all, it’s a very tasty diet.
MN: We are on the air with the Ultramarathon man Dean Karnazes here on Dialogos Radio, and Dean, you have said in the past that you were influenced by the Ancient Greek hero Pheidippidis, who ran from Marathon to Athens to announce victory. What was it like to run these races in Greece, as part of the Navarino Challenge, and indeed to start the marathon from the birthplace of your father?
DK: It was very spiritual for me. It was a very moving experience to go back to the place of my roots and to see it as it was when my grandfather was there, and even his grandfather. Little has changed in the area where my family is from. And the other thing that struck me is just how magical Greece really is. It’s hard to describe when people ask me what was it like, I can’t do it in a single sound bite. There’s something magical about the air in that region, especially in the Messinean region…it has to do with the interplay of light, of the sunshine, of the humidity, of the salinity of the air, the quality of the air. There’s just something about it that makes you feel vibrant and alive. When I got to this place I just felt so vibrant and so alive and where I belonged. It was strange to visit a place that I had never been to before but that I knew my ancestry had come from, and to visit that place after so many years and to feel like this is where I belong, I finally feel at home and very comfortable being here. So it was quite a spiritual experience for me, as well as a great celebration.
MN: How did the local communities in Arkadia and Messinia respond to the Navarino Challenge and also to your visit personally?
DK: Both were overwhelming! The people were so warm and cordial and they invited me into their hearts and into their souls. I was very welcomed, I felt like I was among kindred spirits, that these were my people. And not just speaking about the runners and the athletes, but the common folks. So any place we ran, all of the people came out in the villages and celebrated. There was hundreds of people, spectators, everyone cheering, handing out food and refreshments, so it was really a great celebration of Greek heritage, as well as some great people involved. It was quite a memorable experience, it is one that I won’t forget for the rest of my life.
MN: From what I understand, the ultimate goal is to make the Navarino Challenge an annual event, is that correct?
DK: Yes…this was the first year, and for an event to be that successful in its first year is amazing, and I think in years to come, it will be even more spectacular.
MN: Last time that you were on our program, which was a couple of years ago, we were still known as Austin Hellenic Radio at that time, you had shared with us your goal to run a marathon in every single country in the world. Have you made any progress towards this goal?
DK: It’s still a goal, it’s still a dream, I will say that it’s a trickier proposition than what I originally thought of when I initially conceived it. It is moving forward, I am working with the UN and the US State Department, still trying to get all the passports and permits required to enter every single country. It’s been a long process, it will happen, it’s just taking a little bit longer than I thought it would.
MN: In closing, you are someone that has faced many challenges in your life…what message would you like to send to our listeners and in particular to the people of Greece, as they face one of the most challenging times in the country’s history?
DK: Well I don’t want to get preachy to the people of Greece, because it’s hard for me being here in America with a stable career to say “be strong and persevere” during this hardship. But I will say that during my visit to Greece I was encouraged from what I saw. I thought, from the news that we see here in America, that it looks much worse than what I encountred. Even the people that have been displaced and out of work, they still have a spirit about them, a positive spirit and hope, and I think that as painful as the process is in Greece, it will make the Greek people stronger. I learned as an athlete that adversity makes you stronger, hardship makes you emerge tougher on the other end. So my message to the Greek people is to be strong, is to stay the course, is to remain optimistic and positive. I will say that here in America, Greece is still viewed as a magical and mystical place. Greek people are still held with very high regard and with very high esteem. So I don’t think anything has been lost in this crisis, I think that something had to change, it’s clear from looking at the economic reports that Greece could not stay on the same path that they were on, and I think that as difficult as this transition has been, I think Greece will come out of it stronger and better, so that’s my hope, and I’m going to do everything I can to help that dream come true.
MN: Well Dean, thank you very very much for taking the time to speak with us today here on Dialogos Radio, and best of luck with all of your continued endeavors.
DK: Thank you and I hope I see you and many many others next year at the Navarino Challenge!
Please excuse any typos or errors which may exist within this transcript.