Throughout Martin Dugard's life, running has been a consistent place he always returns. He's written for Outside, Sports Illustrated, and Runner's World about the world of running. He recently updated and rereleased his best selling book 'To Be A Runner'. Since his start as a writer, Martin has gone on to be a New York Times bestselling author writing books with Bill O'Reilly, James Patterson, and Mark Burnett. In today's episode we chat about his rereleased book, taking the risk to leave a corporate job to chase his dream of being a freelance writer, the process of writing, collaboration with others to write books, and his tips for those who want to take the risk and go 'all in' on chasing their dreams.
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About Martin
Mr. Dugard is also the author of the critically lauded memoir To Be A Runner, a series of essays which takes the reader around the world as he recounts his personal journey through the world of distance running. It is a book about life itself, and how the simple act of stepping outside for a run is a metaphor for our daily desire to be the best possible version of ourselves, step by step.
This attribute can be seen in the diversity and depth of Mr. Dugard's body of work. His writing and research into global exploration resulted in The Explorers (Simon and Schuster, 2013), an engaging narrative about the motivations for pursuing adventure — even at the risk of death.His ten years covering the Tour de France resulted in Chasing Lance (Little, Brown, 2005) a travelogue combining history, sports and gastronomy. Other works include the New York Times bestseller The Murder of King Tut (with James Patterson; Little, Brown, 2009); The Last Voyage of Columbus (Little, Brown, 2005), which tells the riveting tale of the legendary Admiral’s final, ill-fated journey in crisp, swashbuckling fashion; Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone (Doubleday, 2003), Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook (Pocket Books, 2001), Knockdown(Pocket Books, 1999), and Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth(McGraw-Hill, 1998). In addition, Dugard lived on the island of Pulau Tiga during the filming of Survivor's inaugural season to write the bestselling Survivor with mega-producer Mark Burnett.
Mr. Dugard is the writer and producer of A Warrior's Heart, starring Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2011.
An adventurer himself, Dugard regularly immerses himself in his research to understand characters and their motivations better. To better understand Columbus he traveled through Spain, the Caribbean and Central America. For Tut he explored pharaohs' tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. He followed Henry Morton Stanley’s path across Tanzania while researching Into Africa (managing to get thrown into an African prison in the process), and swam in the tiger shark-infested waters of Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay to recreate Captain James Cook’s death for Farther Than Any Man. And for To Be A Runner, he ran with the bulls in Pamplona, suffered electric shock and hypothermia as part of Britain's Tough Guy competition, and explored Japanese WWII bunkers on the island of Saipan.
On the more personal side of adventure, Dugard competed in the Raid Gauloises endurance race three times, and flew around the world at twice the speed of sound aboard an Air France Concorde. The time of 31 hours and 28 minutes set a world record for global circumnavigation. Dugard’s magazine writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others. In 1997, Dugard was awarded the Dallas Area Press Club’s Katie Award for Best Magazine Sports Story.
Mr. Dugard spends his afternoons as the Head Cross Country Coach at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, California — a position he has held since 2005. His boys and girls squads regularly qualify for the California State Championships, and his girls team won the state title in 2010, 2011 and 2012. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the USA Track & Field Foundation, charged with growing youth distance running in America.
Martin Dugard and his wife live in Orange County, California. They have three sons.
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