Finding Purpose in Endurance Running with Yassine Diboun

Wild Ideas Worth Living

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4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yassine Diboun is a Portland-based ultrarunner and coach who found endurance sports during recovery from addiction. After signing up for his first triathlon in 2004 to bring structure to his life, he discovered a talent for running that quickly evolved into a career in ultramarathons. Since then, he has become one of the sport’s most respected athletes, with top 10 finishes at Western States 100, multiple course records, and a place on the U.S. trail running team.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sometimes you have to really hit this rock bottom place in order to like make these types of changes.
0:08.0	And that's what happened to me. I started going to 12-step meetings and one of the guys from the meetings used to see me working out at the gym a lot.
0:19.0	And then he saw me running around town.
0:21.6	And he said, hey, you should do the YMCA triathlon.
0:24.6	I didn't really even know what a triathlon was, but I was curious.
0:29.6	So I literally was like six months sober, and I said, I'm going to sign up for this YMCA triathlon.
0:36.6	When Yassine Daboon signed up for his first triathlon in 2004, he had no idea that it would
0:43.7	lead him to a career in endurance sports.
0:46.6	He took up triathlon as part of his recovery from addiction, working out in order to give
0:51.6	himself some structure and stay busy.
0:54.2	It turned out that Yassine was an incredibly talented runner.
0:58.1	Within a few years of that first triathlon,
1:00.7	he was introduced to ultramarathons, where he really found his stride.
1:05.0	Since his first ultra in 2007,
1:07.9	Yacine has finished in the top 10 at the coveted Western States 100, set ultramarathon
1:12.9	course records around the country, and joined the USA Trail Running team.
1:18.0	Nowadays, Yasein is considered a leader and a legend in the ultra-running community.
1:23.1	I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is wild ideas worth living, an RIE CoOp Studios production, presented by Capital One and the REI Co-Op MasterCard.
1:36.3	Yassine DeBoon, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Tell me where you are right now.
1:41.8	Thank you so much for having me. I am sitting here in Portland, Oregon with my little puppy on my lap.
1:48.5	I love that.
1:49.3	It's the town of runners.
	...

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