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Determination


Dean Karnazes has proven his incredible talent for long-distance running. Although he ran track as a young man, he quit after a conflicted relationship with his coach. On the night of his 30th birthday, however, he decided he wanted a change; so he walked out of the building he was in and began to run. He didn’t stop running until he reached the number of miles equal to his age. He ended up running 30 miles straight, all with no training. From that point, he began to push himself to run extreme lengths and under extreme conditions. Among other accomplishments, he has run a 135-mile ultramarathon across Death Valley, California, in heat that reached 126 degrees; he’s run a marathon to the South Pole in temperatures that reached 40 degrees below zero (in normal running shoes, not snowshoes); he ran a 199-mile relay alone (it was supposed to include a team, but he was the only man on the team); and ran 350 miles over three days, without sleep; and most recently, he ran 50 marathons in all 50 states over 50 days (one marathon per day).

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