The Runner in Congress: Mark DeSaulnier’s Journey Through 23 Marathons, Public Service, and a Near-Death Comeback

THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST

Dominic Schlueter

Running, Sports

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s guest knows endurance—on the trail, in public service, and in life.

Congressman Mark DeSaulnier of California has run 23 marathons, including Boston, New York, Napa, and even Paris.

A former lacrosse player turned lifelong runner, Mark once pursued a sub-3-hour marathon while simultaneously trying to bench press twice his bodyweight. He came heartbreakingly close—twice clocking a 3:04—and carried that same grit with him into politics, business, and recovery from a life-threatening illness.

In March 2020, Mark fell during a run in D.C. and sustained broken ribs. What followed was a terrifying cascade: a damaged spleen, undiagnosed pneumonia, organ failure, and five weeks in the ICU—four of them on a ventilator.

His odds of survival? Just 10 percent; one doctor told his sons he wouldn’t make it.

But he beat them.

Now serving in his 11th year in Congress, Rep. DeSaulnier brings that same sense of perseverance to his work on transportation, education, and mental health. He currently serves as Ranking Member of the House Ethics Committeeand is a senior member of the Education & the Workforce Committee.

But this episode isn’t about politics. It’s about what happens when we lace up and head out the door—what running teaches us, what it heals, and how it transforms who we are.

In today's conversation, Mark takes me through his running journey and pursuits, insights from his 23 marathons, running a 3:04 marathon back in the day, becoming known as the “running politician,” how he used to train back in the day, and how running saved his life - literally.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I am on the senior member of the Education Committee here in the house.
0:03.0	So I spend a lot of time on behavioral health issues, in particular on cognitive development.
0:09.0	And not the surprise, but now we know because of imaging that when you exercise and when you run,
0:16.0	do aerobic exercises, you get to be smarter in every way, including this.
0:22.5	So I like to tell people when they tease me, I said, I run because I'm stupid and I want to be
0:27.3	smarter.
0:32.1	That was Representative Mark DeSanier.
0:35.0	Today on the Running Effect podcast, it's a privilege to welcome on my first person ever on the podcast from Capitol Hill. And I kind of had this idea a few months ago that I wanted to start to have more people on the podcast who are runners, but that's not what they do professionally. And it's just a hobby, a side passion, something that's a part of their life,
0:54.9	but it's not the full part of their life. In this case, Mark is a congressman and he has been since
1:00.0	2015 out of the state of California and he is a big runner. He's a massive runner. He's done
1:05.0	23 marathons, including Boston in New York, as he talks about in today's conversation. He's
1:09.8	run 304 in the marathon,
1:11.3	and he's been running for decades. And it was honestly such a fun conversation to have someone
1:17.6	of such prestige and such, yeah, he's just, he's remarkable. It is so impressive, obviously,
1:23.9	to become a New York congressman, while also having run 23 marathons and to talk to him,
1:29.1	not at all about politics, but literally just about his running and how it has shaped him.
1:34.2	As I just said, a minute ago, this conversation, we do not discuss politics at all. That's not
1:38.5	my show. It'll never be my show. But it's cool to have someone on who is so successful in that
1:43.3	area to talk about running and how it has impacted him.
1:46.6	I love this conversation.
1:48.0	I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.
1:50.5	Mark was just a true honor and privilege and enjoy to talk to.
	...

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