#1635 - Katie Spotz

SPEAKER_2 (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

What's happening?

Not much at all? This is very uneventful for you. It's funny that you're nervous to do this, but yet you're not nervous to row a boat. Well, you might have been nervous. Were you nervous to row across the Atlantic?

Katie Spotz (0:28)

I definitely was nervous, and I think that is a good thing to be able to channel that energy to make sure bad things don't happen, but that was definitely more of my comfort zone than doing something like this.

Joe Rogan (0:40)

Is that the cra- Well, obviously it's the craziest thing you've ever done, right?

Katie Spotz (0:46)

Well, I think that the last endurance challenge, it was running 33 hours straight, and I think that hit my physical limit more than the row did. Like after the row, I felt like my body could probably continue going. But it was just, yeah, more mentally challenging.

Joe Rogan (1:06)

How did you get started doing these kind of things?

Katie Spotz (1:10)

So I would definitely consider myself more like an accidental adventurer. So I had to take a gym class to get my high school diploma.

And through process of elimination, I wanted to find like the easiest A, because at that point I was like a benchwarmer and I didn't really excel in those team sports. So the easy A was a walking running class.

And I signed up just like trying to do the bare minimum. And it was during that class where I was like, okay, I'm already forced to be here. I might as well try to run. And I set that target of running one mile straight.

And I never thought I could do that. And so when I did run one mile straight, it was probably equivalent to people who run a marathon, like just feeling like really elated. And that's the seed that planted all the adventures to come. It's really just that one mile and realizing that I was limiting myself by what I thought was possible. And one mile turned into two, two into three. And that was really how I did my first marathon. And every event started from really that place, that one mile.

Joe Rogan (2:35)

So you were sort of an athletic underachiever or a not interested in athletics person?

Katie Spotz (2:41)

So in middle school, I like most people did all the sports, all the team sports. And the focus was like, oh, hey, let's hang out, let's make friends. And my priority was definitely just hanging out with friends. I didn't have that competitive sense about it. And once it got too competitive, I kind of checked out because I was like, why are you guys making a big deal about this? Do you know what I mean?

When you see it, when the parents are more invested and you're like, settle down.

So when it became stressful and not fun, that's when I checked out and I didn't really have interest in that. And so when it became my own, when it became something that was very internally driven and not anything other than the pure curiosity, I would say that people who do athletic things, like they could be driven by many things. And I would say at the core, one of the driving factors is just like a kidlike wonder of like, can I climb a tree? Can I do this? Can I do that? And it's like, I think curiosity is very underrated in that like it could really propel you to see what's possible. And so curiosity time and time and again has like brought me to do things that I never imagined doing.

Joe Rogan (4:09)

Do you still think back to that first mile, like completing that first mile and that elation, the feeling of elation where you were like, oh my God, like a new door's opened?

Katie Spotz (4:20)

All the time. Like some of my friends now that like I'm more in ultra running, it's like, we'll hear ourselves. I mean, I'm not exempt from this, but saying things like, oh, it's just a mile or just five mile or just a marathon or just whatever you wanna adjust it. But like, I still don't feel like I've lost sight of that because I mean, I know this is kind of harsh, but like sometimes I say to my friends, like we'll tell that to someone who can't walk. Like it really is worthy of celebrating every step, every mile. And so I mean, yeah, I think there's like, it's just one achievement opens the door to other ones. And so yeah, I definitely don't feel like I've lost that.