At mile number 340, Dean Karnazes noted: “finishing this is as close to an out-of-body experience as I’ve ever had. Earlier on, the pain always brought my mind back, but for these last ten miles I’ve felt totally disassociated from my body.”. In 2004, Dean Karnazes ran 350 miles / 560 km in just 80 hours. To put that in context, a marathon is ~42 km. Dean ran over 13 marathons in a row, without any sleep.

Funnily enough, for some of us, simply staying awake for that long might feel like a feat. Running that distance in a year might even be pretty decent — 10km a week is a pretty sound goal for an average person. Yet, there are people like Dean, who take distances that most of the population would consider to be impressive feats of endurance and make them look like warm-ups.

Humans are incredible. Feats of physical performance are often illustrative of this. Whether it’s Ross Edgley swimming around Great Britain, or Alex Honnold’s free climbing, there is no denying that watching people test the boundaries of human abilities leaves one in awe. You can, of course, be awe-inspired by examples of soldiers at war, mothers who have sacrificed all for their kids, or any one of countless intellectual feats. The point of this discussion is not the specific task, but rather, to encourage you to ask the following question…