Real Life Forrest Gump – The Most Inspiring Guy You’ve Never Heard Of

Looking for a little shot of inspiration this afternoon.  Look no further than David Goggins.  If you do anything today, spend some time getting to know his name.

10 Reasons Why David Goggins Is a Hero

1) He once ran around a 1-mile track for 48 straight hours.  He completed 203 miles.

2) He holds the World Pull-Up Record.  In 24 hours, David completed 4,030 pull-ups.  When he was done, his hands looked like this (those are third degree burns):

3) He completed the 135-Mile Badwater Ultra-Marathon (which takes place in the lower-level of Death Valley).

4) In his spare time, David Goggins is a U.S. Navy Seal.

5) Goggins often runs 15-20 miles before eating breakfast, and then bikes 25 miles to his “desk job” as a Navy Seal.

6) David isn’t a workout addict.  He isn’t crazy.  He competes to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  This foundation provides full college tuition to military children of Special Ops personnel that were killed in the line of fire.  He has raised nearly $500,000 for the organization.  Oh, and he also builds handicapped accessible homes for veterans.

7) He was once nearly 300 pounds, and had never run for more than 20 minutes in his life.  In fact, he still “hates” working out.  Funny, because he looks like Ray Lewis and runs like a damn Kenyan Marathoner.  His resting heart rate is in the neighborhood of 32 beats per minute (that’s 40 less bpm than normal).

8) He has had two operations on his heart.  A few years ago, David discovered a hole in his heart the size of a poker chip.  And yes, he was competing without ever knowing it existed.

9) In the near future, he plans to compete in cycling and extreme mountain climbing competitions.  Woah.

10) David found his competitive motivation after a brutal tour in Afghanistan.  He lost a lot of his closest friends in a “mission gone bad.”  He vowed to help the families that lost their husbands and fathers.  He isn’t much of a car wash or bake sale kind of guy, so he Googled the world’s ten hardest physical feats and decided to complete some of them as a charity for his fallen comrades and their families.

This guy deserves a lot of respect.  I’m pretty glad I get to live in the same country as him.  One of the best and brightest.  Take that, Kenyans.