7 Marathons, 7 Days, 7 Continents - Mental Toughness

James Blasco (: 00:33

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Charge Forward Coaching Podcast. I'm James Blasco and you know on this podcast, we talk a lot about mental toughness, specifically the Four C's of Mental Toughness Commitment Challenge, Control and Confidence. And today we definitely have a person that understands mental toughness. Just give a little bit of background. He's an engineer. He splits his time here between Daytona Beach and Georgia. But from an athletic perspective, here are some things that he's done.

21 ultra marathons, three 100 mile endurance races, one Ironman, one Spartan ultra beast. It was a world championship. won his age group. And most recently in February, he participated in the world marathon challenge. That's seven marathons, seven days, seven continents. So I am excited to dive in and learn more about him and his mental toughness and his endurance career.

So Matt Parker welcome to the program.

Matt Parker (: 01:34

Well, happy to be here.

James Blasco (: 01:37

So why don't we start with the basics, just give us a little bit of your personal background and also how you got into endurance sport.

Matt Parker (: 01:46

So I've always been an exerciser. When I was younger, I lifted weights a lot ⁓ and ran maybe a little bit. But starting, I guess, in my mid 40s at the company that I own, ⁓ we signed up a bunch of people to run the Peachtree Road Race, which is the world's biggest 10K. ⁓ 2011, maybe, somewhere around there. And so started training for 10K.

And then after that, said, oh, well, I've done a 10K, might as well do a marathon. And so it sort of proceeded from there. I did a marathon, then I said, well, might as well do a triathlon. And then I did a triathlon, I said, might as well do an Ironman. And then I think after that, maybe I said I wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon. And then it just kept proceeding.

Eventually I got into the Spartan races and did a number of those. ⁓ And then ⁓ ultra marathons. ⁓ I've done probably more ultra marathons than anything.

James Blasco (: 02:56

Yeah, and I was wondering when I look through your career up to this point, and like you mentioned, all those things that you've participated in, as you were gradually doing more and more and more, what was your mindset changing? Like, what were you thinking? Were you just testing yourself or you just found that you really enjoyed pushing yourself like that?

Matt Parker (: 03:17

I wanted to constantly a new challenge, just try to accomplish something, something new, you know. ⁓ I'm not one to stay with any one thing for too long. like to, you know, I like the challenge of getting better at it, achieving it. ⁓ And then, then it's what's the next thing is generally been the way it's gone. ⁓ So it's hard for me to imagine just running marathons all the time.

just anything like that, just trying to vary it and make sure it's difficult. Make sure, I mean, if it's not difficult, why do it? ⁓

James Blasco (: 03:59

So with each of these different ⁓ types of races, does your training change or are you on the same training regimen all the time and you just shift gears in terms of what event you're participating in?

Matt Parker (: 04:15

Well, the training changes no matter what. mean, well, of course, triathlons, you're going to be doing, you know, swimming and biking. The Spartan races, I actually put up, made my own obstacles and rope climbs and things like that at my property in Atlanta so I could, you know, learn to climb ropes and climb walls and things like that. But even if it's just pure running, I always make sure if it's a big event, usually I've got some big events.

⁓ And I have a written training program every time. And even if it's just pure running, a lot of ultra training programs are a lot of slow miles, just a lot of miles, but slow. ⁓ But even if I'm training for ultra marathons, one time it'll be that kind of training program. And then the next time, for example, there's a book called Run Less Run Faster, which involves some grueling, you

less running, but they're a lot faster. And then a good bit of cross training in the middle, ⁓ which is what I'm currently doing. ⁓ So that'll keep me hopefully from getting slower. If all you ever do is the same kind of training, then you're not going to get better. You need to vary it in my opinion.

James Blasco (: 05:35

that makes total sense. And I know for someone like me who I do work out, but I, while I'm working out, maybe doing weights, I'm looking at the treadmill and I'm kind of cringing, like I gotta go run. But there's other folks like yourself, and I have friends and family who love to run and participate in 5Ks and marathons. What is it that draws you to running? Is it something that you've, obviously you've worked on recently in a lot of different ways and build up endurance, but.

Is there a certain joy that comes from running just in general for you?

Matt Parker (: 06:10

So my normal routine to guarantee that I'm able to train is I get up early, usually four to five o'clock in the morning before work. ⁓ That's a reliable time. can, you know, because you don't have family commitments or business commitments and I can just do it. ⁓ And so usually six miles if I'm running, but it'd be the minimum. ⁓

And I enjoy, you know, if I'm running outside or on the treadmill, you know, read the Wall Street Journal on the iPad, if I'm on a treadmill. And if I'm running on the beach or outside, it's thinking time. And so I actually enjoy it. And actually, I'm addicted to running after all these years. If I was to go a week without running,

then I start to feel bad physically. I don't feel good. ⁓ And so, you know, that runner's how they talk about it's a real thing ⁓ or a low if, you know, sometimes. So after the world marathon challenge, I needed to recover. So I didn't run for like 10 days and that wasn't enjoyable really. So.

James Blasco (: 07:35

Yeah, I've

heard that a lot from others that it's well like an addiction, like you said, and they just are a different person almost when they're running on a regular basis and those short periods usually when they're not. So I'm just fascinated by the world marathon challenge. When I first read the article and I started going through it, I really didn't know much about it, didn't know it existed. And for those of you out there,

We're about to explain what it is, well Matt is. Just know this, there's only like two, 300 people that's ever participated in this event. It's pretty exclusive group and it involves, like I mentioned at the beginning, seven marathons, seven continents in seven days. Matt, can you give us the framework of what it's like to go into this and what that week entails?

Matt Parker (: 08:30

So ⁓ the way it physically worked is we had to get to Cape Town, South Africa a couple days or three days before the race started. And then the first race, we all boarded a plane. And it was one plane, a commercial charter that all the athletes were on. ⁓ And other than the flight to Antarctica, which had a special plane, I think it was like a Soviet era.

cargo plane, ⁓ literally, because they use that plane to ship cargo to a ⁓ research station on Antarctica. So we went to Antarctica, ran our first marathon, came back to Cape Town, ⁓ ran the next one, and then the rest of it was on that commercial ⁓ plane. basically, one thing that we...

didn't realize was gonna be as much was the travel. You still had to go through customs and they made us carry our luggage off the plane and on the plane every time. ⁓ And so the, ⁓ lot of time going through customs, waiting in airports and then the sleeping was on the plane, ⁓ which varied. You never really knew what time of day it was because it was

You run the marathon, you go to the airport, you get on the plane, you fly. And as soon as you get to where you're going, you get off the airplane, you go run a marathon, and you keep going. And so you never got used to the local time. ⁓ And so, and you never had your ⁓ body get accustomed to, you know, there's no such thing as jet lag at that point. ⁓ And so, you know,

Getting the food and the sleep is a big challenge as well.

James Blasco (: 10:29

And that's one of the first things I thought of as I was learning more about the experience is, okay, it's one thing to run a marathon and the preparation it takes for that and the mindset it takes for that. But just the journey from continent to continent, all the things you just described, I mean, that was a completely different mental ⁓ deal you had to work through. It just blows my mind. So you get to Antarctica, very cold.

You were mentioning in the article it was 40, 50 mile an hour wind, super cold. What was your mindset that first marathon you're in in our car is freezing cold. You're about to start this journey. What were you thinking?

Matt Parker (: 11:11

Well, that one, if I remember right, it was eight loops all on the ice. And so it was the coldest I've ever run in. But the challenge of that one was we ran into this big wind for about a mile and then turned a little bit with the wind and then turned and the wind was at our back. And so it was

very, very, very cold running into the wind and then running with it, I got hot. And since you, there was no aid stations or anything like that, except for there was a tent that you could, that one time per loop you could go to. So there was no change in clothes or anything. So I had to choose between being exceedingly cold or exceedingly hot one way or the other. And after a couple of loops, I was soaking wet. I took clothes,

off underneath my basically all I had at that point was a was a running shirt and a windbreaker and ⁓ so that mile into the wind was freezing cold so I chose to be freezing cold for that mile and then I was good for the rest of it so that was really what the challenge there was ⁓ and then the foot

James Blasco (: 12:31

Yeah, I'm not

great at math, but that's about a third of the marathon or so into that freezing cold wind, right? Is that sound about right? Because you went around eight times.

Matt Parker (: 12:40

That's right. And I would look really forward to making the turn so that I could ⁓ warm up each time. Now I'd say, okay, only six more laps. Okay, only five more laps. ⁓

James Blasco (: 12:47

Yeah.

So you get done with that marathon. The first one, check that box about how long from the end of when you finished to getting on the plane, about how long did you have?

Matt Parker (: 13:08

Well,

in that particular one, the wind was picking up and I finished and I thought I was going to have about two or three hours. And gosh, 40 minutes after I finished, they shut down the race. They said the wind was picking up too much for the plane to take off and we were going to get stuck in Antarctica. So ⁓ probably over half of the people were still out there running. They went out there in a snowmobile with a sled trailer. ⁓

and picked everybody up. they didn't get, about half the people, I guess, didn't get to finish that marathon. ⁓ So we got on the plane real fast and went back to South Africa. And then they let everybody that didn't finish their finish, basically make up the miles in South Africa. So that was what happened there.

James Blasco (: 13:58

Gotcha. And so a big difference when you get to South Africa and the weather's different. That morning when you wake up, I'm assuming you slept a little bit on the plane. When you're about to go into the second marathon, was there a huge difference in your mindset from the beginning of that first marathon to now, the second one the next day?

Matt Parker (: 14:21

Well, now the second one's a hot one. ⁓ So freezing cold, and then the next day was hot. ⁓ But it was flat, you know, and ⁓ right alongside the beach, if you want to call it that, in Cape Town. ⁓ So yeah, it was way different conditions.

James Blasco (: 14:43

So through this process, as you're getting to the third marathon, the fourth marathon, were there moments where you said, this is crazy, I'm not sure I can get through it? Were there physical things happening to you that maybe were unexpected and you were having to contend with them? What happened in the middle of that journey?

Matt Parker (: 15:08

Well, unfortunately, in Cape Town, must, I ended up getting GI issues, you might say. I think about 25 % of the people in this race ended up with really bad problems with their stomach, let's put it that way. And that happened in the middle of the race. First, the second marathon.

I basically got sick. And like I say, about 25 % of the people did. And so the whole rest of the marathons, I had that problem. Which made it to where, you know, a big thing about running ultra marathons in particular or lots of, you know, marathons is eating. You need to eat. And I had trouble eating the rest of the week. And...

and sleep too. So I was basically sick. I didn't expect that. It did make it more difficult, I guess. It slowed me down a lot. But there was never a point at which I was going to not finish because of that. In my mind, I had to do it.

James Blasco (: 16:28

And that obviously says a lot about you, your commitment. I know there's a charity involved. We'll get to that in a little bit. But when it comes to commitment and sticking to a goal like that, which is a massive goal, what do you tell yourself? You said you just didn't have a choice really to quit. Why? Other than the charity, why wouldn't you quit? What's your mentality about commitment?

Matt Parker (: 16:56

Well, I mean, you signed up for it, you paid for it, you trained for it, and so you got to do it. And so I never really spent any time thinking about quitting. I mean, the only thing that in my mind that was going to stop me is if I had a physical problem. So I started on the second race, I started developing.

shin splint. I could feel it because I've had him before, ⁓ only on my left. ⁓ each day it got a little bit worse. And I was thinking, this may be, you know, if it at some point gets really bad, then I would have ended up walking, know, or limping the whole thing. ⁓ But so short of some kind of, which by the way, never, never became a big enough problem. Like I thought it might become.

⁓ But even if it had, I would have had some really slow times, but I would have just kept going unless something physical stopped.

James Blasco (: 18:02

So let's see you started in Antarctica, went to South Africa, Australia, Dubai, Spain, Brazil, and then back to the US in Miami.

Out of the seven continents and the seven marathons, which one did you find the most challenging and maybe challenging because it was a little different than you expected?

Matt Parker (: 18:28

probably Australia, third one, cause I, you know, I, ⁓ I didn't know when I started the Cape town when that, that I was going to have stomach issues. I knew I had them for the third one and, and, know, the thing was run, you know, in the, on a, beside a lake and, ⁓ and beside a road, lot of it in, in, ⁓ Australia.

And ⁓ I didn't know what to expect with the stomach problems I was having. And so I'm constant worried about that. Other people had some issues there too. And ⁓ so that was a big worry, ⁓ just the stomach issues that I was having and what that might result in.

James Blasco (: 19:17

Were there any types of emotions during this whole process that stood out to you that you had to confront, whether it was anger or frustration, whatever it might be, and you had to say, well, wait a minute, I can't let that emotion overtake me, I gotta stay focused on what I'm doing.

Matt Parker (: 19:38

I generally don't have a problem with being focused. During races, you have your highs and your lows, especially ultra marathons. But this was true at the World Marathon Challenge too. Something starts hurting. ⁓ And what I'll tell myself at that point is, well, this is hard, but this is what you signed up for. This is what you wanted. And ⁓ so...

You just want, you got to deal with it and you say, that's, that's what the point of this is. If it was easy. In fact, that was something that my father told me when I was young. said, son, if it was easy, everybody be doing it. And, ⁓ and so that's part of the reward that you get is that it's not easy. And so I tell myself that during the race is when you expect this is what you're, it's what you signed up for. So deal with it. And so that's, that's what I do.

James Blasco (: 20:39

Yeah, I mean, that's all you can do. You got to you're committed to something and it's a goal and there's no reason to stop when it gets tough because you knew it was going to get tough going into this. You knew what it was all about. So makes makes perfect sense to have that kind of mindset. ⁓ How did you build the confidence to number one, participate and say, yeah, I can do that. And then number two,

know that you could do it at a pretty high level, because I think he came in 18 out of 51 or 61 other runners, which is pretty darn good. Did you have that confidence going in that you could accomplish that?

Matt Parker (: 21:21

So one thing that I'll do for any big race is I'll establish two goals usually. One's a stretch goal that I think maybe I can do and I'll try to do. And then I have a minimum goal. ⁓ And then I really try to make sure I meet that minimum goal. At this one, I wanted my stretch goal because there's a lot of world-class athletes in this event.

⁓ And I'm 61 years old too, so I don't have any expectation that I'm going to win anything or come anywhere close to it. So my stretch goal was I wanted to be in the top half. ⁓ And so I think I was in the top third, so I actually did it. I'm going to say more often than not, I don't achieve my stretch goal in most. But my other goal was to finish. That was my.

Which is rare for me. I'm not, you know, I should not go on wood. I've never had a race that I didn't finish. ⁓ Which means I'm lucky too, that I've never had a physical problem. ⁓ But ⁓ so yeah, that was kind of the way I handled that.

James Blasco (: 22:39

It is amazing that you really haven't had those physical issues because you know, we going down a list of all these things that you've participated in, you're bound to have at least one. I'm sure you're familiar with David Goggins in his book, Can't Hurt Me. And ⁓ here's a guy was in great shape and he was constantly injured, seemed. He was always battling some kind of physical ailment or some other challenge. So ⁓ that is impressive that you're able to do that. So when you got done, you're in Miami and

you finished the last marathon, what's one of the first things that came to mind as you crossed that finish line?

Matt Parker (: 23:16

Well, the nice thing about that was my family came to Miami and surprised me. I knew my wife was coming, but I didn't know some of my other family members were coming. And so they surprised me before the race and they were there at the end. ⁓ so that made that one really nice. Interestingly enough, that was supposed in Miami, even in the wintertime, that would be a hot marathon.

So I packed shorts and, you know, short sleeve shirt and all that kind of stuff for that race. And then they had near record cold. It was like 40 degrees in Miami. We started, it seems like around midnight or something like that. And it was freezing cold. I wasn't prepared for that. So my family actually searched through all of my ⁓

my bags and got some of my cold weather gear that was all sweaty. And I ended up wearing old sweaty clothes that were long sleeve. ⁓ that was another thing about the logistics of this race. They wanted us to pack our clothes ⁓ in bags, separate bags. So I used vacuum bags. So when I checked my luggage,

James Blasco (: 24:26

You

Matt Parker (: 24:45

⁓ My big bag for the flight to South Africa, my big luggage weighed, I think, 32 pounds. And then after each race, I would put my clothes, my dirty clothes in a vacuum packed bag. And it was generally sweaty. And then in Brazil, they left our luggage out in the rain. our luggage got rained on. And so by the end, my bag weighed, I think it was 40

48 pounds. ⁓ And that, guess that's just from the wet clothes.

James Blasco (: 25:17

Wow.

Moisture, holy

moly. Yeah, that's that's for you don't think about stuff like that I mean all the logistics all the things you had to prepare for in addition to running a marathon every day is What caught my eye? I just started thinking of all these different things you probably had to contend with and some of the things you've described here Beyond what I thought even would happen ⁓ in terms of I talked to a lot of younger athletes high school college things like that and

Obviously I talked to them about mental toughness and the four C's in mental toughness. What's something that you would encourage young athletes to do on a regular basis as part of say their routine or their journey towards their goal? What would you suggest they do to make sure they stay on path and are true to themselves about accomplishing the goal that they set for themselves?

Matt Parker (: 26:19

Set a goal, an ⁓ achievable goal, and then make sure that you would achieve it. ⁓ I mean, I know that sounds basic, but a lot of people don't have ⁓ a direction, or they don't. They just say, ⁓ I'm just going to run, or I'm just going to do whatever it is that they're doing. But you need to have a goal, and then you need to set a plan for how you're going to achieve that goal, concrete plan. ⁓

And then work towards it and make sure that you follow up with how you did in achieving it. ⁓ And set high expectations for yourself. You need to set goals that are doable but a stretch. Not easy. It shouldn't be easy. ⁓ And then you'll feel better also when you achieve it.

James Blasco (: 27:09

In working with these individuals, goals is paramount. It's their goal. I don't suggest what their goal should be, but I always want to know specifically what their goal is and why they're trying to achieve it. And there's a ⁓ great book that's been out there for a while, Atomic Habits, and it talks about setting goals and they're important, but...

It also refers to the fact that you need like a system to accomplish these goals. And whether that's a routine, your plan, your strategies, and you execute that. So I love what you said there. It's like you set the goal, but then you gotta go achieve the goal. I mean, that's the biggest thing. Everybody sets goals and doesn't mean anything unless you put the work in to achieve them.

There's probably a lot of special moments in the 777 championship. What was the one that stood out the most to you?

Matt Parker (: 28:02

⁓ The finish at the end. My family was at the finish line and they'd made signs, ⁓ you know, that were really cute. ⁓ I have one granddaughter, she was there. My daughter and her husband were there with the baby and that was really nice at the end there.

James Blasco (: 28:26

Well, I'll tell you, I know there's a lot of great athletes and individuals who have come out of the Volusia Flagler County area down here in Florida. I'm going to put you at the top of the list, you know, one of the one, two, three, because I still think this is an amazing feat that you accomplished. And just that the willingness, the courage and the effort to do it is outstanding. I think it's something that I'll always look up to.

But there was a charity involved. I know that was extremely important to you. Can you tell us a little bit about this charity and how people can support it?

Matt Parker (: 29:04

So the charity is for the Chase Academy and we raised close to $45,000 for them to move into a bigger space, which apparently they're gonna do this next year because they've outgrown the space that they're in and they're gonna be able to move into a bigger one. So the money we raised,

help there and we still can raise more. I got to know them by running in their charity 5k, ⁓ which I've done twice now. And ironically, I've won that 5k now twice. If a 60 something year old is winning a 5k, then that tells you there's probably not a whole lot of

really fast athletes in the race. But a few weeks ago they had another one and it's on the beach. ⁓ But that's how I got to know them is in that race and I spent a lot of time with the kids and the teachers and it's an awesome school, awesome kids. And after the 777,

I went out there and met with the kids, got pictures taken with them, with my medals, which was awesome. They called me Mr. ⁓ that, they asked questions about, you know, about the race too. And that was a lot of fun.

James Blasco (: 30:31

Mr. Marathon Matt, right?

Well, I have more questions and I'd love to have you back on. And for those of you out there that want to help Matt and help the charity, I'm gonna put information in the description of this podcast. So any platform you're on, just go into the description, you'll get all the information and hopefully you could help Matt with Chase. And I think that'd be a great, great thing to do.

So Matt, I want to thank you so much. I think your story is awesome. I really appreciate you providing your time, which I know is valuable to the program. And I wish the best to you in the next race. You're in, when is the next race that you're going to be in?

Matt Parker (: 31:24

⁓ Ironically, it's going to be in Cape Town, South Africa next month, about a month from now. ⁓ I qualified for the ⁓ Abbott World Age Group Championships by running the Jacksonville Marathon at a certain time. And so it's ⁓ a world championship, I guess. I'm also in the process of running all the Abbott World Marathon majors.

James Blasco (: 31:30

⁓

Matt Parker (: 31:52

I've done Boston, done New York, and there's more. But Cape Town's about to be one of them. And so that's what I'm training for right now.

when I turned 60 last year, a year and a half ago, on the day before my birthday, I ran the Daytona 100. It's a 100 mile race from Jacksonville to Daytona. And I turned 60 in the middle of the night, in the middle of race at about the 80 mile mark.

he middle of the night there,: 1204

James Blasco (: 32:35

That's awesome. Did you have some cake or did just keep going?

Absolutely. I think all your stories are really neat and interesting. you talk about your family. You know, when you when you have these experiences and you put your heart and soul into something and that mental toughness is there that gets you through it all. It touches other people. It touches other people, not just that they're proud of you, but they say, hey, he did something I could do something done. That'd be a marathon could be another goal they're trying to achieve. And they use

all those things that you learned and leaned on to get through these marathons and these events to help them grow towards their goal. So what you do is a lot bigger than just running some marathons and we appreciate that.

Matt Parker (: 33:36

I appreciate that. by the way, one more thing to add. another challenge for me is I have what's called exercise induced anaphylaxis, which means, ⁓ you can say I'm allergic to exercise. If, if I eat tomatoes before, ⁓ any kind of physical activity, I can have anaphylaxic shock.

Kind of like people that are allergic to peanuts or bee stings. I, so I can eat all the tomatoes I want normally, but if I eat tomatoes and then exercise, then I'm subject to, ⁓ I get rashes. One time I blacked out. One time I lost my vision and blacked out. ⁓ And so I can't eat tomatoes. And on this race, they kept serving everything with tomatoes on the plane

⁓ And so I was having trouble eating already. And then it seemed like more often than not the dishes I served had tomatoes. So that was another challenge for me in that race.

James Blasco (: 34:43

That is

crazy. Just another big hurdle he had to get over. I don't like tomatoes, so I don't have the issues you have, but I would have been in the same boat, get these things off of my sandwich, please. That is crazy. That is crazy. I wish I would have known. Yes, I would have asked more questions about that for sure.

All right, Matt. Well, thank you again. Appreciate it and best of luck moving forward.

Matt Parker (: 35:09

All right, appreciate it.

James Blasco (: 35:11

And for the rest of you out there, don't forget to like, share and subscribe and all that good stuff. And if you wanna learn more about mental toughness, go to chargeforwardcoaching.com. You can learn a little bit more about me and my coaching and even sign up for a free discovery call if you have some goals that you think I could help you with. But in the meantime, just keep charging forward.