56 Hours. 234 Miles. No Finish Line. Kim Gottwald on the Race That Broke the Internet & Becoming The Last Man Standing

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some people push the limit. Kim Gottwald treats it like a starting line.

Meet Kim Gottwald: ultra-endurance athlete, viral content creator, and founder of Rappid Runs, a running apparel brand built for the brutal reality of long-distance races.

If his name isn’t on your radar yet, it will be. Kim just co-won the Go One More Ultramarathon in Texas, racking up a mind-bending 378 kilometers (234 miles) before the race was shut down for extreme weather.

But here’s what really sets Kim apart: it’s not just his mileage. It’s his grit. His no-filter honesty. His ability to blend raw toughness with sharp humor.

He’s run 100K on an 800-meter loop in Cologne. He has blown up on TikTok for telling it exactly like it is. He’sredefining what an ultra athlete looks and sounds like.

In this episode, we’re talking last man standing races, the mental warfare of endurance, and what it actually feels like to hit hour 50 of a run with no finish line in sight.

Whether you're a hardcore runner, an intrigued outsider, or just into seeing what the human body—and mind—can reallydo, you’re in for a ride.

Strap in. Kim Gottwald is here.

In today's conversation, Kim takes us deep into the untold stories behind his 234-mile effort — from hallucinations and heartbreak to the mindset shifts that kept him moving through the dark, the mental tools he used to survive it, what it really takes to go beyond your limits when your body is begging you to stop, and his thoughts on lining up again in 2026.

Tap into the Kim Gottwald Special.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Everyone of us would say, okay, I will quit now.
0:03.0	It makes no sense to die for it.
0:05.0	But I think going in there is a mindset, like, if I die here, I'm at peace with that.
0:10.0	I think that's very powerful, and it's pretty hard to get there.
0:14.0	And I think to convince yourself that you're really, like, ready to go all the way,
0:18.0	it's pretty hard, and you really need to love what you're doing to go that far.
0:26.2	That's the last man standing, Mr. Kim, today on the Running Effect podcast, it's a privilege to say those
0:32.2	words. I was absolutely glued to my phone over the few days where the BPN Go One More Ultramarathon held at Bear Ranch
0:40.7	in Texas was happening. Kim ran for 56 hours. The last man standing event, as we discussed in today's
0:48.3	conversation, is a 4.2 mile loop every hour on the hour until there's one person left standing.
0:53.8	This year, the first year ever
0:55.4	of the go on more ultra two people stood a divine intervention stopped them as we talk about in this
1:02.0	conversation but kim ran 234 miles and he did so in the brutal heat of texas getting over a hundred
1:08.6	degrees i think over the course of the few days that the event
1:12.2	took place. In today's conversation, you're going to learn about so much behind the scenes.
1:16.9	I was glued into it, and I learned so much through my conversation with Kim. I think you're
1:21.7	absolutely going to love it, whether you're a hardcore runner and intrigued outsider or just
1:26.2	seeing what the human body and mind is capable of.
1:29.0	I think you're going to be so inspired by Kim and his stories from the 234 miles,
1:34.2	getting in people's heads, pushing himself past his limits, hallucinating, literally having
1:39.4	the mindset that he'd be willing to die to win.
1:41.5	This conversation was utterly fantastic.
	...

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