Welcome to the Nerve Rush podcast, episode 2.

In this episode, we chat with Joe Mauko. Joe reached out to me a few months ago, and he wrote:

Alan, I am doing four impossible things to fundraise for cancer in 2014:

Run 70km to the start of a marathon, and then run the marathon

Complete a 100-mile ultramarathon

Complete a 24-hour treadmill outside in a Toronto intersection

Complete a 250+km multiday ultramarathon race in Chile’s Atacama Desert

What’s fascinating about all of this, is that while Joe just completed his fourth and final bullet point last month, 5 years ago he had almost lost everything.

He had a lien on his house. He was in a state of perpetual fatigue. He was recovering from cancer. He was 60-70 lbs overweight.

In this episode we talk about what drove Joe to start running. What those first few weeks and months of running were like.

We talk about how he got lost during a 100-mile race, what ultramarathon training consists of, and what racing through the Atacama

You’re going to hear it in his voice, folks. Joe Mauko is passionate. He exudes the kind of optimism and level-headedness we could all use a little more of.

I had a lot of fun hearing his story, and I know you will too.

Mentioned in this episode: