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MARCUS KOWAL

Running the Grand Canyon

Sep 23, 2020
7 min

Running the Grand Canyon

I'm going to write two different blog posts on running the Grand Canyon: one on my personal experience and one on how to prepare for it (or any long run to be honest with an insane incline) from my experience. Me, Mishel and the kids drove to Arizona from LA on the Friday. We started out around 5am. We left early, partially to skip LA traffic but also to get used to the early hours. The idea was to get to sleep earlier and adapt to the 4am start time but it ended up just bein

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The reality of it.

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

The reality of it.

It's finally starting to sink in a little. The fact that this is going to be really hard. This is the e-mail we got from the National Park Rangers. The whole heat and water thing doesn't seem great. Checking the temperature (subjective to change, obviously) and it looks like it can get as high as 104. That's 40 degrees celsius. I went to my doctor today for a check up. He said "can you perhaps only do half of it?". Doing half of it would be not doing it, which equals 0. I loo

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Apologies & Happy Labor Day

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

Apologies & Happy Labor Day

T minus 6 days. And I owe another $100. I'm sorry for the delay in these daily check-ins but I just got a newly designed website up and it didn't allow me to post the articles for some strange reason. For that, I apologize. I hope you a fun and safe Labor Day. Labor Day is one of the deadliest days when it comes to drunk driving. Please don't drink and drive. Be smart. Just get an Uber or a Lyft. Would love any and all feedback on the new website! As always, please feel fre

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The last 10.

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

The last 10.

I guess I owe another $100. Today, I did the last 10 miles before the race next week. It was supposed to be fairly light and although we didn't go too fast, it was an intense run, with almost 5,000 feet elevation. Check out the video for the beautiful but nasty trails going up the cliffs! Wasn't sure how it would feel after the painful 30 last week. It went better than expected and even up the leg burning trails, it felt fine. The rest of the week will be spent resting and s

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Born to run - the Tarahumaras and my book as an audiobook

Sep 23, 2020
2 min

Born to run - the Tarahumaras and my book as an audiobook

If you were hoping to get to read about Bruce Springsteen and his famous song/album, you were wrong. Btw, I guess I owe another $100. It's been a lot of work and on top of teaching, training, running, 2 children, 4 gyms, the non profit, the bill to lower the BAC to 0.05, the personal coaching and some other projects, it's leaves very little time to write. BUT; that's on me. That's my job to get up earlier if need be. Even though I really don't like the thought of having to ge

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The only IT I understand

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

The only IT I understand

Anyone that knows me, knows that technology isn't my strength. I'm aware of it and I'm ok with it. The only IT I care about right now is my IT band. It's tight. It's really, really tight. From year's of taking leg kicks, my IT bands have become harder than a rock. Especially my left one (my front leg when in a fighting stance). Guess which side is hurting when I run? My left. The IT band is a tendon that serves several functions. It runs from the hip down to the tibia (shin

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You win or you learn

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

You win or you learn

That you win or you learn is a common saying in fighting. The saying comes from that the L that you get on your record in fighting stands for Learning, not Losing. It can be very true. Unfortunately, it can also be a big fat lie. It's very common that fighter's start blaming everything around them. The weight cut. The training camp. The team. The coach. Sometimes, those can be real reasons but even when they are, they're not enough. Yesterday, I lost at running. Yes, I made

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Running preparation vs MMA Fight

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

Running preparation vs MMA Fight

So, I'm 2 weeks out. Two weeks from today, at 4am, we start. This weekend is my last week of hard work, before I start tapering down. But damn, is it a hard last weekend! 1 hour of sand dunes today and 32 (!!) miles tomorrow, Sunday. That's the furthest I'll go before actual race. It's the furthest I will have gone since running the LA marathon in 2004. It's also the furthest I will have gone my whole life. Last weekend was actually the first time I thought "I might be able

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The hope for unemployment

Sep 23, 2020
2 min

The hope for unemployment

So I owe $100 and you thought I was about to owe another $100, didn't you? For you that don't know, I have committed to blogging every day leading up to the race, #50for05, #Rim2Rim2Rim: 50 miles with 22,000 feet elevation (sorry, I thought it was only 15,000 but surprise, surprise!). Yesterday was the 2nd day that I missed and I wasn't going to miss another day. Yesterday, no running. Part of the program, since I have the worst weekend that's left ahead of me. Instead, I got

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Running across one of the 7 wonders of the world

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

Running across one of the 7 wonders of the world

One of the main reasons why I wanted to do this insane run was because the thought of running across one of the 7 wonders of the world in my son's name felt appropriate metaphorically. The Grand Canyon's beauty has always intrigued me and to be able to experience it while doing it for something so important seems like a no brainer. Or maybe you have to have no brain to do it. Especially with some parts having a 15-20% grade incline. To get an idea what we have to "look forwar

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New found love

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

New found love

Running was always just part of fighting. That necessary evil that improved our stamina and kept our weight down. "Joy" wasn't necessarily the first word that came to mind when it came to running. However, over the past few months, running has really become something truly eye opening. The craziest part is not even physical benefits. I work out enough to not have to worry about it. Although it is nice to get to eat almost anything and not have to worry about it, because I'm b

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Mindset

Sep 23, 2020
1 min

Mindset

"Running half a marathon (13.1 miles/21k) is harder than running 50 miles", Gary Turner told me just a few days ago. Gary is a former kickboxing world champion and pro MMA fighter, turned ultra runner and mind coach. At first I laughed. Yeah, running just over a quarter of the distance is going to be harder than running the next 3/4s. But then I started thinking about what he said and then it clicked. Gary is right. Of course running 50 miles is going to take longer and thu

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Today's new level

Sep 23, 2020
2 min

Today's new level

Today something happened for the first time: I actually thought I will be able to run this damn monster. Misunderstand me correctly (great Swedish saying): I said run it, not complete it. That I was going to complete it was decided the day I signed up for it. I'd walk or even crawl if would have to. Doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of rattle snakes and scorpions... Today, however, was the first time I thought I might be able to actually run the whole thing. I've had my dou

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