58 Marathons,58 States, 58 Days: The ULTIMATE Endurance Challenge! #604

I'm about to take on one of the biggest challenges of my life: running a marathon in all 50 states of the U.S. and all eight Australian states and territories. Inspired by James Lawrence's 50, 50, 50 challenge, I wanted to add my own twist to it. The planning has been intense, from coordinating marathon dates and travel to figuring out fundraising, training, and recovery strategies.

One of my main goals is to document every part of this journey—the highs, the lows, and everything in between. I want to share it to inspire others and raise awareness for mental health. I’m inviting you all to follow along, offer advice, and support me. I’ll be providing weekly updates on the costs, charity work, sponsors, nutrition, the route, crew, and even the business side of this challenge.

Join The WAITLIST NOW.

https://www.themanthatcanproject.com/strong-men-of-value

Chapters

• 0:00 Pushing Boundaries
• 8:45 Building Support for Marathon Journey
• 15:59 Inspiring Men to Become the Man

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:38

58 marathons, 58 days, 58 states. I'm setting out to become the first person to run a marathon in all 50 states of the United States and all eight Australian states and territories. Now, this journey is more than just running. It's about pushing boundaries and proving that with determination, anything is possible, and I want you to be a part of it. Now, this has been something in the pipeline for a fair while now, and I guess why do I want to share the journey? Because it's a testament to the idea that you do not need to have everything figured out before you start. Sometimes, the idea is all you need to start taking action and figuring out along the way. So this whole challenge, the idea of the 58-258, began when I interviewed James the Iron Cowboy Lawrence on my podcast late last year, which was awesome, and if you haven't listened to that episode, I'll link it in the show notes below. But his 50-50-50 challenge was a huge inspiration and if you aren't familiar with it or if you haven't heard about it, he completed 50 full length Ironman across 50 states of America in 50 consecutive days and I wondered if I could take on a similar challenge with my own twist, and that's what really grew into being the 58 to 58. So the idea bounced around in my head for months and gaining momentum after I ran the Nashville Marathon I think it was in April this year and it was a time that I was craving a substantial challenge right. It mulled over in my head for weeks on end and I discussed it with my wife and family and while Amy was initially hesitant, her eventual support was all that I needed, all the push that I needed ultimately. And I still remember chatting with a client and a good mate of mine and he instantly was like, yeah, mate, I'll throw some money into that. And as soon as I had someone's support not only, I guess, emotionally, I guess from that standpoint, but then also financially I was like, okay, this could really gain legs. So I got stuck into really planning. What it was all about and that's what I want to talk about in this episode is around the 58 to 58 and over the coming weeks, or even up until, I want to share the journey with you because, from my own experience and for those of you who've been on my Instagram page for a number of years, you'll remember, or you may remember, that I had a Instagram page called Rookies to Regionals, which was with a good buddy of mine, where we were aspiring to make the CrossFit Regionals, which is, I guess, the level before the CrossFit Games.

Speaker 1: 4:31

But we wanted to document the journey because one thing that I felt was being underrepresented on social media and YouTube and podcasting was the actual journey to achieving outcomes. We quite often get to see the end result of people's lives, but never really what it took to get there, and I want this to be one of those journeys where you guys can come on and follow this journey with me and even be part of it. Right, help me, because there's so many things that I don't understand about this challenge, which I'll cover in a moment, but there will also be a lot of lessons that I will learn, that I believe there'll be, you know, crossovers between the goal that I currently have and goals that you're working towards within your own life. So I'm very, very excited to document, as best I can, the journey to achieving this huge world first. So once the trigger was pulled and I knew that this was something that I was going to build towards, the initial excitement was intoxicating, as I'm sure you've experienced. When you've set a goal. You imagine the highs, you imagine the transformations and you imagine the impact. But then came the practicalities. The goal isn't just about running. It's about planning every detail. How will I run so, coordinating marathon dates and ensuring that I'm physically prepared? Now, I'm not doing official marathons it's not possible to have a marathon every day of the week but I'm running the marathon distance, so 42.2 kilometers in every state, and I've mapped most of them out using Strava. But I will also be open to, as we build this thing, we meet people who live in local areas that I'll be running. I'm definitely more than open to collaborating and having ideas from you guys as well.

Speaker 1: 6:26

The next thing was how will I travel right, navigating the logistics to move between states and territories efficiently? We're on a very tight time schedule and I'm not going to answer all of these now, even though at this point, I've thought about it and mapped it out. I'll give these their own emails and YouTube videos as we go. How will I raise funds? By securing sponsorships to keep my feet on the road and my team on the road, while also creating fundraising strategies for the charity of our chosen choice, which, once again, I'll announce in a later video. What will my training look like? So I'm actually having a call with a new coach tomorrow, or potential new coach, which I will once again record and I'll put all on the YouTube channel that you can follow along with there.

Speaker 1: 7:10

But how will it fit my lifestyle, the travel that I've got coming up, getting prepared for the snow and everything like that along the way, and how will I recover and fuel myself? So planning for nutrition, rest and injury prevention they're all going to be things that we'll dive into Now. These challenges are significant and underscore why no one has ever attempted this before. People have done the 50-50-50, whether it's through the Ironman, like James Lawrence has done, or people who've just run marathons in every state over consecutive days but they haven't done the international travel, especially to Australia, which is a decent flight away from Nashville it's at least 14 plus hours, right. So that's going to be fun and we'll talk more about what my concerns are there and logistics of how we're going to make that as best as possible. But it's something that we all experience, right? We all experience the highs of goal setting and then, as a planning, comes into it and I guess maybe the imposter syndrome, the fear of failure. It's something that every single one of us experience when we set goals and it is something that I help men within the academy where we help you set a powerful and realistic plan but also hold you accountable to that and if you're interested in really making more progress over the next 12 weeks and most of in 12 months, join the waitlist for the academy. It opens up in next week and then we have two weeks where applications are available, where you can apply and I'll be getting you set up for a successful 12 weeks. So make sure you check that out.

Speaker 1: 8:46

The journey will test my limits. I have no doubt about it. I keep being asked what am I most worried about? Do I feel my body can hold up my knees? What will it be like running in the cold? All of these things that I am going to do specific videos on. But I have recognized very quickly that I'm going to need a really, really solid support crew and sponsors to make this possible. So I'm looking, as I'm building this team and as I'm starting to look for sponsors. I'm starting to look for people who can not only contribute by being a good person, but their expertise and resources to make this a reality.

Speaker 1: 9:24

It's not just about me running. There's so much more to it as I'll unpack in different videos, but if you have insights around endurance, events like this or logistics around travel, especially international travel, that you believe could assist me, I'd love to hear from you. So your advice or support could be a key thing to helping me overcome some hurdles that I will face. And look, there's plenty of things that I believe I can prepare for. There's also going to be a lot of things that I just couldn't have dreamed up happening, so stay along for the journey. So one of the reasons why we're doing this, or why I've chosen to do this, is I've been where many people are struggling, fearful of failure and dissatisfied with life's direction. Over the past decade, I have transformed from feeling lost and lacking purpose to someone who wakes up every day eager to tackle new challenges. My goal is to help others find that same sense of purpose and drive. Now, in Australia, suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 44, and I hope this journey can inspire others to rise above their struggles just like I have.

Speaker 1: 10:35

I'm sharing this journey with the aim to provide valuable insights and inspire you to pursue your own dreams. I'll be documenting every step of the way so you can follow along on social channels. If you're reading the newsletter, the links are there. For those of you who are watching on YouTube, you already got my YouTube, but I've attached the playlist. There's a 58 marathons playlist, which will be videos and reels specific for this journey.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Okay, but expect behind the scenes content, interviews and updates on the journey, right? Not only all the wins that we're having, but genuine problems, right? A genuine problem that I can think about off the top of my head right now is how on earth am I going to raise enough to win, get this going? And I'm going to be completely honest. I've done a breakdown of the expenses and we're looking at around $70,000. So there's a fair bit of fundraising or not fundraising, that's. You know, I have a goal, and I'll talk about the goal of how many funds I want to raise for a specific charity that I'm meeting with when I get back to Australia. But the sponsorship to make this happen is something daunting, because not only am I training and making sure that I can actually physically do it and mentally do it, I have to make sure that financially, I can do it as well to achieve the outcome that we're looking for.

Speaker 1: 11:54

So head over to the YouTube 58 Marathon playlist, subscribe to it. Same with Instagram, that's probably where I'll be most active and the most live updates will be and, once again, the reason why it is really helpful, if you want to show some support, to subscribe to those is the more subscribers I have and the more followers I have and the more stuff that you guys share. It helps the audience grow, which means I can ask sponsorships for more support money and then, as it continues to grow, we can actually get bigger companies and organizations to donate to the fundraising, rather than having to ask individuals or fans or followers for that. So there's some benefits there and if that's the way you'd love to show your support, I would truly appreciate you guys helping me get this adventure out there to more people who you believe may be inspired by, whether it's the 58 marathons or why we're doing it, or the fundraiser that could benefit from the fundraising around mental health, which is one of the charities that we're working with. So I will be providing weekly updates on the cost, so a breakdown on expenses and budgeting, because not only for this, but in life like that's important to start thinking about and I'll be sharing strategies and probably frustrations along the way around, that, which I think will be very helpful for people Training, so insights into my preparation and adjustments.

Speaker 1: 13:17

I now recognize, just because I'm traveling a lot with my wife and I've got a business to run and various other things, I am qualified to do the training and I have a lot of experience. However, I am going to outsource it. It's one less thing that I have to think about, and a good buddy of mine will be taking that over, and I trust in his ability to have me physically prepped, because all I want to do is open up my training program, complete the training program, not have to think about going ahead. So I'm looking forward to that. So I'll be talking about weekly updates on the charity, so details on the charitable causes and how the funds are going to be used. Sponsors, so profiles of people who do come on board to support it and their contributions. Nutrition, obviously, what I'm eating to fuel my performance.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Now, this is super important. Like endurance events, it's not just about your ability to do one marathon, it's how do you back up and do 58 in a row while traveling different time zones in the snow and then going to the heat in Australia is going to be wild the route. So updates on the marathon, locations and logistics. Why we're choosing specific locations there are some key ones here in the States that I really just want to see because I want to see the country, but there are some that we have to sacrifice just purely because of logistics. We have to make a different state every 24 hours, so sometimes that can be a little bit challenging. Crew. So introductions to the team supporting me and more about those guys as well, because I think it's more than just me. It's a team Documentary.

Speaker 1: 14:46

My goal is to raise enough funds to have a documentary made, whether it's just put here on YouTube. And if we don't raise the funds, I'm going to teach myself to make a bloody documentary, probably with the help of ChatGPT as my script writer or something like that. But we definitely want to make sure that we highlight as much of this and also acknowledge all the people that make this possible. And then the business side the challenges of balancing achieving this while also the logistics in the back end, because quite often, even if you think about sports teams, while you're enjoying the sport for what it is, there's a whole business behind it, and I personally am interested in those things.

Speaker 1: 15:28

I love watching the Amazon documentaries around what makes an English Premier League club run, or even other sports that I enjoy. I really enjoy that. So I want to share that with you guys as well and be as transparent as I can. So if you do have questions or things that you would love to see covered, make sure you drop comments below and I'll do my best to produce content on that and share and answer those questions because, once again, the questions that you have are probably questions that so many others will have and maybe questions that I've thought about or maybe not.

Speaker 1: 16:00

So it's going to be super helpful if you get involved and, like I said, I'd love you guys to join me on this incredible challenge and strive to become the man that can, because that is ultimately what it is about inspiring men to become the man that can and that can be in any area of life. It could be the man that can be a great husband, the man that can get nice and healthy, the man that can earn a million dollars, the man that can fill in your example. That's what it is. So if you do have any suggestions, I would love to hear from you. Thank you guys for being here this week. Make sure you click the subscribe button and I will see you next week with another update. My name is Lachlan Stewart. Thank you guys for supporting the man that can with Lachy Stewart.