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All right, today we have with us a guest who attempted a thousand miles in one month.

He was in a hike the I did a ride trail in the winter.

Keith Eckert, welcome to Pop Bear Hikes.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Let's start off with this Keith. Tell us a little bit about you.

Okay, so my name is Keith Eckert.

I'm originally from was raised in Arizona and after high school, I went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and was there for four years and then I moved to San Diego and was in the Navy for a little bit.

And then while I was in the Navy, I read the book Born to Run, which is a book about ultramarathons and that peaked my interest and it kind of was the catalyst to what I wanted to do when I got out of the Navy.

And once I got out of the Navy in 2016, I started to look at ultra running and that's kind of where I am now.

It's kind of brought me to this point where I'm at now.

And we could say you're a bit of an ultra athlete as you do ultra swims ultra biking.

So you like that extra challenge. You like that step up of a challenge. It sounds like.

I like to maybe go a little bit further and see really what, you know, just can I do this and can I do what, you know, can I swim this distance, can I walk this distance, can I bike this distance and sometimes it's not successful and but at least I now I know the answer.

And I try to emphasize that with people, whether you're just doing your run of the mill backpacking trip on a trail or what you're doing, it's not that you failed. It's that I attempted it.

And so many people think about attempting hiking a trail or doing an ultra sport like you do, they think about it, fantasize about it, but never go out there and actually do it.

I think attempting it says a lot about you about the people that are actually out there trying to do this because you don't just roll off the couch and decide you're going to do an ultra marathon or an ultra swim.

No, and the attempt or failing is what makes it fun because if it was easy, then I mean, I probably wouldn't do it.

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