A Special Warrior

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A Special Warrior

He is big. Check that. He is HUGE. That’s David Goggins on the cover of this issue of Competitor, all 6’1” and 195 pounds of him. The Navy SEAL actually used to be a lot bigger and used to bench press a lot more.

by Bob Babbitt

“I used to bench press 435, but now I’m at 275 or so,” says Goggins. Of course, the guy is 100 pounds — yep 100 pounds — lighter than he used to be.

“Lifting was a passion for me,” he insists. “In my power lifting days, I used to look at runners and cyclists like they weren’t that tough. Now I realize how wrong I was. Going long distances is the only way to really test your soul,” he adds.

David Goggins is the type of guy who likes to see where the human limits are and then maybe push a few thousand miles beyond them. His first triathlon? Nope, not your garden variety half-mile swim, 12-mile bike ride and 5K run. When David Goggins decides to dive into something, he dives deep. His first triathlon was an event in Kona, Hawaii, in November of 2006 called the Ultraman.

Day one is a 6.2-mile ocean swim and a tough 90-mile ride; day two is a brutal 171-mile bike ride (261 total cycling miles); and day three is a 52.4-mile run from Hawi — the bike turnaround in the Ironman — back to sleepy downtown Kailua Kona.

How did Mr. Goggins train for his first triathlon? Since he had to go to work every day for the SEALs, he would be up and training at 3 a.m.

He borrowed a bike from a buddy and, starting about three weeks before race day, immediately ramped up the mileage to a cool 300 per week. Sort of like the guy in your physics class speed reading the textbook as the final exam is being passed out.

But unlike our physics flunkee-to-be, Goggins aced his exam, finishing second overall by a mere 10 minutes at the Ultraman.

“I lost over 30 minutes dealing with a flat tire on day two,” he remembers. After he flatted, he used a rental bike that he had with him just in case. Unfortunately, it didn’t have clip-in pedals, so he rode the last 20 miles or so in his running shoes strapped into old-style cages.

Earlier in the summer, Goggins ran Kiehl’s Badwater Ultramarathon (135 miles across Death Valley in over 100-degree heat). No 5Ks or 10Ks or marathons for David Goggins. Nope. His first-ever organized running event was a 24-hour race in San Diego consisting of one-mile loops. He had to run 100 miles in under 24 hours to qualify for Badwater. When he went through 101 miles in 18 hours and 56 minutes, he went home. Mission accomplished. Then in late-July, he finished Badwater in fifth place overall.

So, David, you have transformed your body and you are now an endurance athlete. Are you into it for the runner’s high or the glow of a great workout? How much do you love this? Not much, says Mr. Goggins.

“I don’t like any of this stuff,” he insists. “My life is about doing things you don’t like to do. I figure I can suffer through just about anything. I’m doing this to raise money for our Special Operations Warrior Foundation. All the money we raise goes to help out the kids of Special Warfare soldiers lost in the line of duty to go to college. So far, we have helped put 266 kids through college. That’s my motivation. That’s what keeps me going.”

Don’t look for David Goggins to come over to the dark side and start wearing a Speedo or shaving down anytime soon.

“That won’t be happening,” he laughs. “There will be no Speedos being worn by David Goggins and no shaving of any leg hair.”

This is a man who obviously enjoys testing himself — a lot. But even Goggins has to come face to face with doubt when he’s doing events that require you to suffer under extreme conditions for hours and days on end.

“When I start to question myself out there, I think back to when I quit or failed at something when I was younger,” he admits. “If you are any kind of man or any kind of woman, you know you never want to feel that way again. My philosophy is that eventually the pain is going to end. Nothing lasts forever so you might as well dig down deep and get through it. Quitting is just not an option.”

For more information on the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, go to www.specialops.org.