Conquering One of the Hardest Ultramarathons in the World, The Barkley Marathons, with John Kelly

On this week’s episode, WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed is joined by ultramarathoner and data scientist John Kelly. John is fresh off his completion of one of the most grueling endurance races in the world, the Barkley Marathons. He has won numerous endurance races, competed in multiple Ironmans and triathlons, holds a Guinness World Record, and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon focused on brain-computer interfaces. Will and John discuss how John got into ultramarathons and endurance competitions (3:52), what John gets out of running ultras (9:10), running the Barkley Marathons (12:00), how to fuel before and during an ultra (16:40), how to navigate while running the Barkley Marathons (18:33), John’s WHOOP data before and after the races (20:05), recovering from an ultramarathon (25:08), the mental and physical fatigue when running ultras (28:07), how John developed mental toughness (34:45), what it was like going back to the Barkley Marathons after winning (40:05), people who John has learned from over the years (47:44), what John has learned while being on WHOOP (50:00). Resources: John’s Website John's Twitter John's Instagram Support the show Follow WHOOP: Sign up for WHOOP Advanced Labs Trial WHOOP for Free www.whoop.com Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn