What Are You Actually Capable Of? Mark Dowdle On Winning A 306 Mile Backyard Ultra

**Rich Roll** (0:01)
This episode is brought to you by Go Brewing. Here's something I never saw coming. When I stopped drinking, and that was a long time ago now, the assumption was that you'd given something up, that you were on the outside of the party. And now, the whole culture has shifted. More and more people are drinking less or not at all, not because they have to, but because they just want to feel better. And that shift created room for something that didn't really exist before, non-alcoholic beer that is actually good, not a sad substitute, the real thing. And that's what Go Brewing is, and why I got behind it as an investor. It was started by my friend Joe Chura in his garage, and these guys obsess over their craft. The proof keeps stacking up, gold and silver at the Best of Craft Beer Awards, more World Beer Cup medals than any other brewery, and a spot on the New York Times Best Non-Alcoholic Beers of 2026
For the record, no added sugars, no unnecessary processing, just real beer made with real intention. They've got this awesome beer club that entitles you to exclusive releases you're not gonna find anywhere else, shipped right to your door. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna go to gobrewing.com/richroll50, and there, you're gonna get 50% off your first subscription order to Go Brewing's beer club.

**Mark Dowdle** (1:27)
I'm just going to figure out how far I can actually go when I'm up against the best competitors in the sport.

**Andrew Yang** (1:34)
The man, the myth, the legend, Mark Dowdle. Ultra endurance athlete, base in Minnesota.

**Rich Roll** (1:39)
He is qualified for Team USA at Biggs Backyard Ultra. You're a gifted athlete, but this is really a mindset story.

**Mark Dowdle** (1:46)
We all have a choice to make. One story is saying, you're not good enough. And then there's another narrative where every step that I take is evidence that who I say I am is who I actually am. The story that you want to write is in your hands. People ask me what tip I have for them running their backyard ultra. It really is.

**Rich Roll** (2:10)
So Mark, it's super cool to meet you in the aftermath or in the midst of the BPN Backyard Ultra. I was getting so many messages from people like, you got to get Mark on the show. You got to get Mark on the show.
And Dan Churchill like FaceTimed me, and he just went on like a diatribe about like how awesome you are and how you'd be such a good guest. And I already knew that you would be, and I'm delighted that you're here today, man. Thanks for making the trip.

**Mark Dowdle** (2:35)
Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's cool to hear.

**Rich Roll** (2:38)
So you cut a very different kind of like figure in the ultra running community. You're a big dude, first of all. And you played, you're like one of those guys that was good at all sports in high school and in college. Football, lacrosse, all American and lacrosse in high school. Yep. All state and football. Played Division III football in college and lacrosse in college. But not track and field, not cross-country.
So what happened? How did you get into running? What's the origin story there?

**Mark Dowdle** (3:11)
Probably like most guys that come from my background. You hear David Goggins' podcast, and then you're just lit up.
It was the spring of my senior year for lacrosse. We had just done a road trip where you'd play three games, lost two out of the three games. I'm sitting in the back of the bus, throwing a pity party, moping about the direction of the season, how things are going to go, projecting all this negativity out into the team, the energy. And my brother sent me the Joe Rogan David Bogagin's podcast where he talked about how he was running 100 miles on a track, 70 miles in, he's defecating down the back of his leg, he's pissing blood, and he gets back up with nothing but saltine crackers and keeps running. And at that time, I was going through a lot of trying to go through transformation from getting in trouble with alcohol multiple times in school and trying to figure out where my life was headed. And I saw this man transform his pain into something meaningful, like something with purpose and actually took action with it. And that is when I started, like the first thing we did, I did when we got back to St. Paul at two in the morning was I went for a run.