Kale Poland does ultra-marathons, the name is a little misleading, as it now encompasses a lot of really long races of every sort, including triathlons. You may have heard of the Ironman competition: 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon.
That's nothing for Kale. He has done many 50-mile running races, of course, also a few double-ironman races, even triple and quintuple ironman distance events. But in 2012, he was the seventh American ever to complete what he calls a “deca”. That’s ten times the distance of an Ironman. That’s a 24 mile swim, a 1,120 mile bike ride, and a 262 mile run.
Sam spent a morning with Kale and put together this long-form narrative feature. Along with producer Logan Shannon, he also produced the short video below, for which Sam hopped on a bike and strapped on some nordic skis. Take a look and a listen.