\u2018The Bachelorette\u2019 Winner Zac Clark Is Taking on the Goggins Challenge
Back in January, The Bachelorette winner Zac Clark ran a 5K with his fiancée, Tayshia Adams. Now, Clark is back with a different kind of feat: running four miles every four hours for 48 hours—also known as the Goggins Challenge.
The 37-year-old initially wanted to take place in the challenge hosted by The Maddie Project—a charity in association with North York General Hospital that focuses on youth mental health—from March 5 through 7 of this year, but he couldn’t because of scheduling conflict. However, since reading David Goggins’s Can’t Hurt Me and Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra in 2020, Clark has been toying with the idea going farther.
The Goggins Challenge will be his first taste of that.
“I became fascinated with these guys who could turn it on and go for miles and miles,” Clark, who has finished the New York City Marathon six times, told Runner’s World. “Naturally, you follow people on social media and you start seeing people do stuff like ultras. Somewhere it plants a seed in your mind and you start to think, I can do that.”
Clark’s challenge will start on Friday, April 9, and he will be joined by a group of nine other runners: Chris Chavez, Alex Denstman, Cara Enright, Francisco Liuzzi, Zac Price, Andrew Schwartz, Izzy Seidel (the sister of U.S. Olympian Molly Seidel), Greg Travers, and Ryan Welsh. They are all friends or friends of friends who agreed to take on the challenge together.
The crew will roll out of their basecamp at the Equinox Hotel in the Hudson Yards neighborhood in New York City for their first run at 3 p.m. ET. Each four-mile run will take place when the hour starts with 3, 7, and 11, morning and night.
“Running is one of the greatest tools I’ve been given,” Clark said. “I am pumped to take part in the Goggins Challenge and experience this journey with my teammates and supporters. Life moves fast and putting aside this weekend to commit to each other and the wellness community, there’s something powerful in that.”
If you want to get in on the action, Clark recommends three ways of contributing:
“This is all meant to bring community together and raise awareness about recovery and drug addiction,” Clark said. “We’re super excited about it. And if you’re bored this weekend or just watching The Masters, come see some people suffer and a laugh a little bit on social media. I’ll be posting updates and content on my Instagram and Twitter accounts.”
Clark anticipates many challenges along the way for him and his crew. In reading about similar events, he’s learned sleep management is one of the biggest challenges. Having to wake up every four hours will require getting about two hours of sleep at best at a time. He’s also thinking about fueling strategies, but he mostly plans to keep it simple and fun.
“I’m planning to drink water, take in some carbs, electrolytes, have quick sugar around, some Skittles, have a cheeseburger here and there,” Clark said. “All bets are off.”
Adams, who he met on the 16th season of The Bachelorette, will also be supporting the man who received her final rose. Clark will be doing his seventh NYC Marathon three weeks after the London Marathon—and maybe Adams, as well.
“We are very supportive of each other and she’s definitely on board with what we’re doing this weekend,” Clark said. “She knows I’m crazy. It’s confirmed.”
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