How do you do that over the course of a 141-mile competition?

This island is very powerful. There is a spiritual power. You feel this energy. You can’t grasp it in your hand but you feel it when you get off the plane. I began to understand this when I studied Shamanism, with Brant Secunda. He got me to learn how to get to the start line and have the gun go off and let me surrender to whatever the day is going to bring.

How does that jibe with an intense desire to win?

That is the peak performance paradox. During every one of the six championships I won there were hundreds of moments where it didn’t feel possible. You get into negative space and you have to draw back and regroup and take a breath and say, “What can I do?” And then focus on your rhythm and breathing, looking around at the lava and the beauty and the ocean, and then everything loosens back up. Those are amazing transformations when they happen and those are the moments that are like life. Life doesn’t say, “If you give everything you have you will have a guarantee of getting what you want.” Life says, “Give everything you have and then let’s see what happens.”

Do you miss the competition like so many retired athletes do?

I would not classify myself as a classically competitive person. Sport was a way for me to evolve as a person. Once gun went off it was sort of like floodwaters going over the levee. There was nothing that was going to hold me back from giving my best.

Which is different from a burning desire to win.

It is. If only one person wins does that mean everyone else is a loser? Absolutely not. Now, I think people who say they are only racing themselves are full of it, but you can be in cooperation with your competitors and see them as helping you to do your best.

Do you coach any of the top athletes?

My real passion is age-group athletes. If you change one or two things they are doing in training their performance goes up incredibly. Elite athletes are already getting 99 percent out of their D.N.A. They usually don’t want to change and come to me thinking some magic will rub off, and it doesn’t work that way.

Are you amazed at the massive popularity of what was once a fringe endeavor?

It’s been a slow, natural progression but over the span of time it’s mind-blowing how big it’s become.