It's Just Walking. 1 in 3 Don't Finish. | Marc Hodulich

Marc Hodulich was a high school sophomore when he ran five months on a broken foot. The scan turned into a bone graft from his shin, two pins across his foot and three orthopedic surgeons before one of them would say he might run again. The pins are still in there 30 years later.

He went on to run track at Auburn in the SEC, and then he built the hardest event most people will ever finish. Marc is the co-founder and CEO of 29029. Hike up a mountain, ride the gondola down, repeat until you have climbed 29,029 feet, the height of Everest, inside 36 hours. It is not a race. No clock, no trophy, no paid sponsors. It is walking. And since the first event in 2017, only 68 percent of the people who start have finished. A marathon is 98.

This week I sat down with Marc, one of my closest friends, to get the whole story. Birmingham. Selling payroll door to door in Manhattan while working two other jobs. Six years in management consulting until a partner told him he did not want to go deep on anything. The Wall Street Decathlon he started on the side that raised millions for pediatric cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Meeting Jesse Itzler at their kids' flag football practice. Why 29029 has never taken a paid sponsor. The 80-year-old who called the event "frustratingly doable." And the summer he, Jesse and Colin O'Brady did 29,029 feet three ways, on the bike, in the water and on the mountain.

We also get into the part that never makes the highlights. The day I quit at Kona. What I went through in Mexico. Why Marc deleted email off his phone. And what he means by fulfillment over achievement.

Follow Marc: @marchodulich

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Chapters

(00:00) Meet Marc Hodulich