Fight for Every Breath with Marcus Smith

?“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” - Norman Schwarzkopf?

Marcus Smith is an entrepreneur, extreme athlete, and performance coach. Based in Dubai, he’s the founder of InnerFight, which helps everyone – from kids to corporate clients – unlock their peak performance, as well as owner of Smith St Paleo, which provides paleo food offerings to help people make better nutrition decisions.

Marcus is fit, and I mean FIT. At age 18, he started playing professional rugby, making it to the 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup. Since then, he’s completed pretty much anything with “ultra” in its name, including:

• The Marathon des Sables, a six-day ultramarathon through the Sahara Desert known as “the toughest foot race on Earth”;
• A 230km (143 mile) self-supported ultramarathon across Kenya; and
• A footrace on the Auvergne volcanoes in France.

In February 2018, while training to set a world record in ultra-cycling, Marcus was hit by a truck, with the impact smashing him into a brick wall. But he stared death right in the face and said, “Not today.”

Rather than focus on what he lost, Marcus decided to create a documentary ‘Fight for Every Breath’ where he details his experience and his journey back to full health.

Just nine months after the accident, Marcus completed not one, not two, but?30 marathons, in 30 days!

We sit down with Marcus to go through:

• The secrets to his extraordinary self-discipline
• The accident that almost killed him (and how he came to terms with his trauma)
• The darkest moments of his recovery
• What you can do for supreme motivation each day; and
• How to inspire unwavering self-discipline in others.

Strap yourself in. Let’s WIN THE DAY with Marcus Smith!

James Whittaker:

What was it like growing up in Dubai? Can you also take us into a bit of an overview of the city for those who haven't been there?

Marcus Smith:

When I came here at age four, there was nothing -- no lights, no highways, and no buildings. What I still love about the place is that I see it naked. I see it for what it is, for the culture, which now is a lot different.

Obviously there's more stuff that's quite plastic, and a lot of it is not very real at all, but I've got friends that have been here forever and Dubai's been home for the last 40 years.

What's it like geographically? Is it a lot of the sand like you would imagine being in the Middle East or is there bits of greenery and things around too?

There's a lot of green, James, and what the government has done is super nice. From my house, I'm literally in the middle of the desert within 20 minutes, which I absolutely love.

And mate, next week we've got some public holidays coming up and I'm an hour from the mountains and I'll be there for about three or four days so I can get away from it.

People come as tourists to this country, and it's like, "Oh, it's malls and it's buildings." There's a lot more, if you like sand. If you don't like sand, don't come here, mate. There's quite a lot!

You and your wife setup Smith St Paleo. What's it like getting fresh produce and things in Dubai?

We set up Smith St Paleo in 2016. My wife's from Australia and she was actually an air hostess with Emirates for 13 years where we met. Mate, imagine that on an airplane!

We set up the paleo food business based on the back of her suffering a lot of inflammation when she was traveling and she just started cooking paleo food.

So getting good food back in the day, when I first got here, I can't imagine what it'd been like when my mom was trying to cook for us as kids, but now everything's available. We've got a lot of home grown organic food. So yeah, it's super good.

But mate, I think we are probably on par with America, if I'm allowed to say it, the number of burger joints per capita is probably some of the highest in the universe. We're trying to do a good thing, but a lot of the time burgers win for a lot of people.

You met your wife on an airplane. Tell us about the pickup line you used!

It's not even good, mate! I was fast asleep and, she’ll tell this story, she's like, "He looked okay and he was a nice sleeper." So I'm there with my mouth shut.

We didn't really speak much on the plane. We ran into each other in a bar here in Dubai. One of my mates was over from Australia going back. And I said, "Mate, if we're not going to see each other for six months or so, let's go out for a couple of quiet beers."

And we walked into this bar and Holly was in there. I was like, "I know you." We've literally been together ever since.

I went back to live in Australia because I was playing rugby down there. I'm about to live there and she sort of was flying in and out. Then I was like, "This is the one" and I moved back to Dubai.

And in end of 2004, I moved back here full-time and it's amazing. We have a great life, and one day we'll be back in Australia and very happy. Well, we're very happy now, I mean, but I think she definitely didn't take much persuading to say that we'll spend the rest of our life in Australia. I was like, "Yeah, I'm in for that."

One of the most amazing things about your background is your career as an extreme athlete – and we'll get into the accident and those elements that have really defined a big chapter of your life shortly, but where did this love of extreme sports come from – the ultra-running, ultra-cycling, and all those types of things?

Honestly, it's the environment that you're brought up in. I'm not blaming it on my parents, but they did such an amazing job of making sports such a big part of my life. And I'm eternally grateful to them.

I see a lot of my habits were their habits – it's incredible. They'd have people running from the house, they'd be off at triathlons. Mum would be winning running races here in Dubai. And I would just be begging the whole time from like four or five years old to go out and go running with them.

As I got a little bit older, I was allowed to run a little bit further down the street with them and then they'd be like, "Right, you've got to go home now." I do believe, James, you are a massive product of your environment and I feel a little bit sometimes not super comfortable saying that because I know people didn't have such fortunate upbringings that I had, but I know that people had perhaps more fortunate upbringing than I have, and haven't done much with it.

You are a massive product of your environment.

But endurance sport was in my blood from the start. Dad has cycled the length of New Zealand, he's cycled the length of England, he cycled pretty much halfway across America so that's really where it comes from. And even to this day, my dad's pressing 74, 75. I was speaking to him the other day, he's out on his bike and mum's doing workouts in the garden and it's amazing. I love my parents so much and they've given me so much.

Yeah, you need to catch up! It's a good benchmark of fitness and adventure for your life.

Yeah, absolutely. It really is.

You've done ultra-marathons through the Sahara Desert and had some other incredible experiences. Was there a particular moment where you felt like maybe you'd bitten off more than you can chew?

No, absolutely not. The Sahara was the moment where a lot of things came clear, mate. I was running 250 kilometers across the Sahara self-supported and honestly, I have a picture of it just before it happened, it just so happened that one of my friends took a picture and about 50 meters from where this picture is taken, I stopped and the sand, it was almost like a salt flat and the earth had almost parted. And there was just this big line of runners.

I was like, "Wow, I'm in the middle of the Sahara Desert." We hadn't seen any other civilization since we'd been there for like five days.

And I just thought to myself, "This is amazing that we, as human beings are allowed to pass on this earth." From that, I always had a massive appreciation for nature and for the outdoors.

I spent a lot of time when I was young in boarding school, in the UK, outside. But on that moment, I think a lot of things changed. Since then, all I've wanted to do is cross landscapes on foot and walk and hike and run and cycle. Holly was probably going, "Yeah, this is where it all went wrong. I let you go to the Sahara!"

But yeah, I just had this almost epiphany, if you want, and reflection, I'm huge on, James. And the more I think about it every time I sort of tell that story, the closer I come to it.

Yeah, there's tough times, mate, don't get me wrong. It's brutal. Ultramarathons, endurance sports are I call them the wildest rollercoaster ride you'll ever go on because you are literally, you have these moments and you're invincible, no one can touch you.

You're running through the Sahara and it's just amazing. And a few hours later, the sun goes down and you're like, "Why the hell am I here? Why do I even exist as a human being?" And that's what's so amazing that you have these ultimate highs and lows, which allows you to come back into life.

You're running through the Sahara and it's just amazing. And a few hours later, the sun goes down and you're like, "Why the hell am I here? Why do I even exist as a human being?"

When you come back, I believe you live on a different level. Again, it's no better or no worse than anyone else. But for me, it's elevated my game in a number of areas, family, business, a number of different areas. So yeah, the Sahara was very special.

I often think about those sliding door moments about one decision you made. When I first moved to LA in 2013, there was a BBQ that I went to in the afternoon which became the foundation of so many friendships, which has led to so many other amazing things. For you, the one decision of doing the Sahara Desert has helped you with a whole heap of inspiration.

For those who don't know, can you take us into the specifics of running through the Sahara Desert? Is it soft sand? Is it hard sand? Is it super hot? Are you wearing shoes? What's the deal!?

That's a great question. Marathon des Sables, it was the second big ultra that I did, is quite famous. It's a 250 kilometer race. You carry everything you're going to need for those six days on your back. You only get given water along the way and you wear normal trainers. And we stitch in what's called a sand gator to stop the sand from coming in.

Despite people thinking the Sahara is all sand, it's not all sand, but a shit ton of it is sand! You get sand everywhere.

I was going to ask how effective the gators were. Sand is like water. It's sort of hard to get out if you're right in the thick of it!

I mean, they're good, but you get sand everywhere. And a lot of places, it's like a clay sand. So at the end of it, you're like, "Is this a real sun tan?" And then you have a shower and all comes off. But mountains in the day, it's super hot. In the night, it gets really cold. And that's why it's such a brutal race, that particular one, because a lot of races, like you'll have a race in a country that's quite hot most of the time.

I was in Kenya last year and that race is quite warm the whole time. You'll have races in the Arctic, there's an ultra where it's just freezing cold all the time. Whereas the Sahara, it can get down to about 6-8 degrees Celsius at night, but up to 45 degrees Celsius in the day. So you get these massive swings and it sounds quite straightforward, you're going to put everything on your back and you're going to run, but that pack shouldn't weigh really more than about nine kilograms.

You're eating dehydrated food, which after a few days, obviously does quite funky stuff to your digestive system. For some people, it completely blocks them. Other people have literally just diarrhea the whole way through, so those problems are real.

And then we've got hygiene issues as well. You're not able to wash properly because you only get enough water to drink. So literally you're starting to come out with rash on your armpit because you're just sweating so much. I don't need to go on about how your private parts will look, but you can imagine that as well, it's carnage.

I train a lot of people. I've taken over 20 people through that race now, and people will come and see me and I'd be like, "Tell me what it's about." And I just I'll say, "Listen, this race is nothing about running. This race, like life, is about all the other stuff. If you get all of your little admin bits in place, if you control the controllables, we've heard it like three million times in the year of COVID mate. But if you can focus and control on what you control, then you actually have a great time."

And it's mental, we're over 1,300 people running through the Sahara. So as you can imagine, we’re all absolute fruit loops!

Is everyone setting up their own tents or how does that work? Where do you sleep?

They put together this absolute token shelter that most nights just falls down, and you've got eight blokes laying literally like sardines. And when it falls down, no one can be bothered putting it back up because everyone's so tired. People just sleep under the stars, on rocks, you don't sleep properly for the seven days. That’s just the nature of ultra races.

This is what really takes people down because you've got lot of people who are very good runners, but if they can't manage stinking, I'm very good about washing in normal life, but when I'm in the bush or in an endurance event, you've got to deal with that and you don't have enough water and you won't have enough sleep – and eating dehydrated food the whole time is not like eating fresh paleo food, for example – and it's all these things that just start to chip away at people slowly.

And most people, you can move forward. This is one of the biggest learnings I've got from ultra-running and from endurance sports is that you can keep moving forward.

But when you're moving forward to another camp that you don't have anything to look forward to, it's quite a difficult argument to sell to yourself in a way. It's not like, "Mate, you finished this, we're at the pub. We're going to have a countertop meal and we're going to have a schooner."

You can keep moving forward.

But it's like, "Yeah, we're going to get to this other shit camp site where you won't be able to wash, you'll have to cook your food which tastes like crap anyway. And then you'll sleep on a rock. Do you want to go?"

It's like, "No, I don't really want to go there."

Sounds enticing.

Yeah, exactly! So these are the challenges, but that's what makes it absolutely incredible.

How do you feel at the start line of these things now that you have done so many of them – do you feel nervous, or have you gone through it that much now that you're just prepared, you understand the process, and you just got to focus on putting one foot in front of the other?

Yes, to all of the above, but I still get a bit nervous, mate, in a way that, when I go to these races, most of them now I want to try and push a little bit. We're on a journey of self-discovery. We all are, we're expressing that in different ways. So I want to see where my limits are. I want to sort of start to push it.

I want to see where my limits are.

And I also love it, because I've been to a lot of races and the pre, the day before everyone gathers, and then we start the race the next day, I love just listening to people, listening to stories. If it's their first race, people talking about their shoes, their equipment, and just sitting back and listening and taking it all in.

__

Enjoying the Win the Day? newsletter? Hit 'Subscribe' so you can get access to new posts as soon as they're released.

You can also check out the full interview now:

???Read the full interview

???Watch the full interview

????Listen to the full interview

Share a comment on the?YouTube version?of this episode with your favorite takeaway so our guests know they made a difference in your life today.

If you own your own business and would like to learn how to grow it using your podcast, download a free copy of our?Recurring Results Roadmap.

Finally, the right bit of inspiration can completely change the trajectory of someone’s life, so if there’s a friend or loved one out there who needs to hear this episode – or could use some help to Win the Day – share it with them right now.

That’s all for this newsletter! Get out there and #WinTheDay.

Until next time…

Onwards and upwards always,

James Whittaker

PS - If you want access to new episodes of the Win the Day? podcast as soon as they're released, click here and hit 'Subscribe' on your preferred platform...