Rich Roll Reacts To The Most Controversial Athlete In Distance Running

what you make of will Gooch I love will Goose I think he's great I think he is an interesting and compelling breath of fresh air into the ultra running Community um just by way of background I have some experience in Ultra endurance events I've done a bunch of hard races over the years um so I have uh uh a connection to that Community I know a lot of people in that Community have a lot of friends in that Community um Wills BFF in in ultra running is our mutual friend Robbie Ballinger who ran across the United States has done a lot of hard things set the record the F the uh fkt for the central how many laps of the essential how many miles you can run around the loop in Central Park in one day like he's done a lot of crazy wild stuff and those guys couldn't be more different uh and yet are the closest of friends train together race together they crew each other's Endeavors and it's a really beautiful friendship that I I've been sort of privy to to witnessing and observing I know Robbie a lot longer than I know will but I followed will it was Robbie you introduced me to will originally uh so I started following will online and I just found him to be so unique as a figure in this strange little subculture of ultra running because that is a culture that historically has been populated with you know guys that uh you know live in the van down by the river know how to grow a nice beard um it's a granola crowd it's a very it's a very it's a very in a beautiful way it's a Grassroots community uh that has um that has uh you know participated in and helped grow a sport where typically there's no media coverage there's no prize money nobody's doing this for Glory or media attention you pitch a tent at the starting line the night before you wake up you do your 100 miles and you go home and and nobody else in the world knows what you did except for you and there's something really pure and amazing about that and and and uh and that's sort of woven into the fabric of what this sport is about here comes will Goose male model six pack abs looks a lot more like a rugby player than an ultra Runner he's got you know the shaved torso and the uh skincare routine that he's happy to share with you he's walking the catwalks he loves a nice bathrobe and a five-star hotel and tea Service uh he enjoys the Finer Things in life good breakfast yes at the same time he's an absolute beast when it comes to ultra running uh fueled by a desire to make peace with the early passing of his mother who who died of cancer and to raise money and awareness around cancer research he begins participating in these Ultra runs uh mostly I think he started doing some marathons and he he did the the John o'groats run he did a couple hard things but then created some self-styled Adventures for himself ran around Lake Como and this past summer ran across the United States no small feat 3000 Miles Robbie was there every single day supporting him uh Rhys Robinson uh was the guy who created the weekly Vlog on the audacious report which is the YouTube channel that they have Reese used to work for me he lived at my house he created videos for me so I know these guys really well and it was super fun to watch will so throw down day after day 52 miles 54 miles 56 miles and do it with a smile and a certain flare and a passion for fashion this guy looks good and as hard as that was there's something inside me that was thinking he's kind of making it look easy and this in turn ruffled some feathers out in the ultra running Community I [ __ ] love this I want to know about this that you know there's a certain idea of of of what an ultra Runner looks like how they're supposed to be and will isn't will is very different from that and I think people don't like different and so there was a a sort of who is this guy and what is he doing um and then on message boards people started uh taking shots at him and there was a little uh movement about whether or not he was actually doing this legitimately okay so skepticism around the actual a lot of skepticism yeah so much so that one guy flew from the United Kingdom and showed up they were I don't know where they were in the middle of the Navajo Nation or something like that convinced that Will was cheating and that he was there to root him out it's a story that will shares on my podcast I don't know when this is going up and I'm not sure when my conversation with will is going up but um and will had to kind of weather that on top of the difficulty of just actually competing this very difficult task uh and so at which he did and he did it again with flair do you have a I think it's a British record perhaps it's not a world record but I think I don't even I don't remember offhand I could have looked that up um I think that was part of what ruffled feathers that he was going to be the fastest British guy but there was this other guy it's like who cares like will doesn't even care you know he just wanted to go do this hard thing and raise money and um experience it with his friends and you can watch the weekly Vlog on the audacious report and see how it all went down but I respect will for his conviction and his sense of self to just be who he is unapologetically do you know he reminds me of Ross Edgley a little bit uh I love Ross Ross is great I'm not so much in the way he looks all the way he dresses Ross is like permanently in Ross is still Ross is a lot sillier yeah he's an absolute animal in the way that he trains uh mad respect for Ross and and and his accomplishments I think he's just in if you see his new one in uh yes yeah and now he's back in Byron Bay Training um but Ross is Ross's I think Ross has a more childlike nature to him that's very endearing uh but yeah similar in that they've cut their own path in Endurance Sports not So Much by participating in other people's races or sanctioned events but by creating their own self-styled Adventures what's the endurance communities response to Ross being because he did he's for the people that don't know Ross swam for about 200 days six hours on six hours off without stopping right around being circumnavigated the UK the first man to ever swim around the UK he has recently tried twice unsuccessfully in combination with Jim shock to complete the longest ever single duration swim uh first time in Loch Ness too cold second time in Italy too hot yeah uh this African Heat Wave comes in and the water temperature is 32 degrees the air temperature is 40 degrees so it's unbearable anyway what was the endurance community's response to this guy who trains Chris Hemsworth looks like a bodybuilder crossed with a salty old Sea Dog but is a always laughing I didn't see any any uh negative stuff about him but I wasn't looking for it either it surprises me yeah I mean he's a he's a very affable guy um people especially in Open Water Swimming can get very particular about rules and how these things are conducted there's a whole controversy around uh Diana nyad when she uh did her Cuba swim to Florida some people say she broke the rules it shouldn't count Etc so there's there's some Persnickety kind of you know attitude around these types of things I don't have a sense of negative blowback on Ross um maybe there is maybe there isn't but I think to your point of the similarities between will and Ross like Ross doesn't look like an endurance athlete either he's built like a tank and yes he trained uh Chris Hemsworth for Thor he's just an absolute unit this guy which is not the kind of uh uh physique that you want to have for long distance Open Water swimming and I've told him I'm like why are you putting on all this bulk you're making this harder for yourself if you lost 20 pounds of muscle your shoulders wouldn't get tight you'd lose a little bit of power in your stroke but when you're going for uh Ultra endurance that's not important what's important is efficiency and your ability to conserve energy but he is who he is and uh I I love him to death I just think he's a delight to watch and I'm always cheering for him yeah I uh I've really enjoyed watching Ross his book uh the art of resilience for anybody that's going through a bit of a tough time if you've read or listened to the obstacle is the way enjoyed it and thought I want more like a spiritual successor to that book is the art of resilience from Ross So stoic Sports Science I think he called it yeah yeah um and it's this sort of semi-autobiographical Diary of his swim around the UK where he applies both stoic philosophy lessons and Sport signs to the narrative [ __ ] horse and he's a great writer he he's not a contributor to GQ like he's been writing for a long time I think he has a sports science degree um and he's done a lot of crazy stuff like he did a log Triathlon like Karen yeah log swim he pulled a car you know like he's done a lot of kind of Jack LaLanne type stunts over the years in other news this episode is brought to you by levels one of the 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