This is our American story and some of our favorite stories or of Americans driven to undertake utterly unreasonable quests, folks who push themselves because they couldn't bear to have it any other way.

And today, we're talking with Dean Carnassis, otherwise known as Ultra Marathon Man, one of Times

top 100 most influential people in the world, and a New York Times bestselling author, Dean's

claim to fame is doing things like covering 350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes of sleepless running,

or traveling 50 states in 50 days and running a marathon each of those days.

And you know those 200-mile relay races that teams of 12 take on?

Well, this guy runs those solo.

Dean has also written multiple books, including

Ultramarathon Man, Confessions of an All-Night Runner, and his latest, The Road to Sparta,

reliving the ancient battle and epic run that inspired the world's greatest foot race. And Dean,

thanks so much for joining us.

I'm exhausted just listening to the introduction. I think you need to take a run.

I don't have a beer, yeah. I don't have a beer and run.

Hey, before we get into your running and other accomplishments, we love to talk to almost everybody

who walks through this door of our interview process.

Where were you born?

Tell us about your parents and one of the things in childhood that you think shaped you to become the guy you are today.

I was born in Los Angeles.

So California born and raised.

I'm 100% Greek. so I'm from Greek grandparents.

I remember running home from a kindergarten when I was six years old.

I was the oldest child, and when we had my youngest sister, so I've got a brother who's

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