We recently connected with David Grange and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, David thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

As a performance coach, I have the privilege of working with high performing individuals around the globe. I love helping them get unstuck, create a plan and take action to achieve their biggest goals in their relationships, their health, their professional lives, their adventures and so much more! A lot of what I do revolves around powerful habits, mindsets, and creating lifestyles of high performance. A huge part of transformation is challenge, really challenging people to step outside their comfort zones and embracing discomfort to make a breakthrough.

Last spring I was reading the book, The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter and I read about a Japanese term called, Misogi. The idea is to choose something so challenging that you don’t know if it is even possible. It needs to be something that you will attempt on your own and without support and the idea is that it will be so challenging that you will push your limits and in the process, you will have an enlightening, transformational experience. I was riveted with this idea and my mind immediately went to doing some physical challenge. I have always loved using my body to test my mind and this Misogi idea was next level! I wanted to choose something that would be so compelling that it would require the discipline to train hard and consistently. I was tired of not working out and going for morning runs because of lame excuses. I needed something so hard that I wouldn’t miss a workout. At the same time I had been seeing stunning pictures of the Alps and wondered how I could see the most beautiful terrain in the shortest amount of time while still being fully immersed in my surroundings… This is when the idea was born to run 5 trail marathons, in 5 consecutive days, across 5 countries, all solo and self supported. I have been running for more than 20 years but have never ran an official marathon so this seemed like a solid Misogi.

I live in Hailey, Idaho and grew up in Anchorage, Alaska so adventuring in the mountains is something I love and have a lot of experience doing but I have never done it this way before. I did some research created a training plan which was inline with running a 3 hour street marathon so it would be a challenging pace with solid workouts and I would tweak it to have more trail running. I had one running buddy who would join me on morning runs at 5:15am so we could be done before our kids woke up. The spring in Hailey is dark and slushy especially after the huge winter we had with massive amounts of snow melting. A workout buddy was SO helpful to get up and get out in the mornings. After a couple months of training, I bought my plane ticket for Switzerland and kept training. When August rolled around I was in some of the best shape of my life. I was back to my high school weight, I felt physically and mentally strong and was ready to take on this Misogi adventure.

I did a lot of map work to piece together beautiful trails to create marathon distance routes. I was primarily motivated by wanting to see the most spectacular scenery that I could which didn’t always mean the trails would be easy or well established. Thats okay, I was in it for the beauty and the thrill so if it meant more challenging trails, I was down for it… so I thought.

I hugged my 4 kids and wife goodbye and got on the plane bound for Switzerland. I would rent a car in Switzerland and drive to France, Italy, Austria and end with my last marathon in Slovenia. I planned to sleep in the car between runs because I was unsure when and where I would exactly be… haha this was the plan.

I started in Switzerland with a trail that is said to be the most dangerous and most deadly hike. There is NO water and most certainly do not attempt to hike this if it’s raining due to the technical trail conditions with high risk of falling/sliding thousands of feet. It was beautiful and I wanted to run this incredible ridgeline. 5 miles in I had already gained 5,000 feet of elevation. It was leg shaking hard with everyone else taking a gondola ride to the top. After 8 miles I was seriously worried that I would not be able to complete this marathon, let alone 4 more in the next 4 days. I wondered if maybe I should do 5 half marathons or something easier but then I thought about returning home and telling my story. There was no way in heck I was going to not do what I said I was going to do. So I decided right then and there, I was going to freaking run and not stop until I ran my 5 marathons. That thought never showed up again. You decide once on what you are going to do and then go out and do it!

Each marathon ended up averaging 8,000 feet of elevation gain with some runs being as long as 30 miles. I finished each trail run and would grab food and water, fuel up and start driving to the next country. Miles down the road I would pull over, fold the seats down in the rental car and set up my backpacking sleeping pad and go to sleep. Then I’d continue driving in the morning and begin my next run. I was caught in numerous rain storms that soaked me to the bone. I was filtering my own water along the trail, running past iconic mountain scenes with just me, myself and I. I said a lot of prayers when I was caught in lightning storms on ridge tops or when I was running out of sun light with an unknown amount of miles still to go and a map that had disintegrated due to being soaking by the rain for hours. I was constantly fighting the urge to freak out and feel like I was lost in the deep woods of another country.

Interlaken Switzerland, Chamonix France, Cortina D’ Ampezzo Italy, Maria Elm Austria, and the Julian Alps of Slovenia all proved to be spectacular mountain ranges. I some of the trails I only saw a few other people. Running solo and self supported was physically exhausting and nearly broke me mentally.

In the end I finished my last run in Slovenia and was overtaken by my emotions of gratitude, love, exhaustion and so many more. I ran 137 total miles with an elevation gain of over 39,555 feet which is equal to climbing Everest twice. I miraculously didn’t have one blister or hot spot and no chaffing. I filtered my own water, ate wild berries and granola bars and came back a changed man. I bathed in rivers and lakes, saw some of the most famous mountains in the world and did it all solo and self supported.

I wanted to push my limits and I got a lot more than what I bargained for. Many people ask me why did you do it? My simple response is, I wanted to push my limits and see what was possible. I’ver never heard of someone doing this so I wanted to be the first to try.

Transformation is on the other side of challenge! Sometimes our challenges are self imposed other times they are not but either way, this life is a constant testing ground with opportunities to test ourselves, stretch ourselves and see whats possible and I hope we embrace it with a smile knowing it will only make us stronger.

The past 6 months have changed my life forever. It proved to me that I can be disciplined and stay focussed on big goals to see them through. If I can train and accomplish the hardest thing I’ver ever done in my life then I truly feel like anything is possible with the right amount of focus and consistent work to get there. This has been rocket fuel for my mind and body and has made waves in my coaching with my clients.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a family man, husband, coach and athlete. I have 4 kids under 8 years old and my wife and I both have our own businesses. I worked in luxury hospitality for years and loved working for some amazing teams and companies. From Maui, Hawaii to Sundance, Utah to Sun Valley, Idaho.

I was frustrated in my career, my work fulfillment, my team and the lack of time I had to spend with my family so I was exploring some options and decided to go back to school to become a professionally certified coach. Nearing completion of my coaching school, my group sales position was dissolved and I was laid off. If ever there was a moment for “here’s your sign” that was it!

I jumped into coaching and after thousands of hours coaching individuals and teams, I have evolved and developed a 100 day coaching program with the best of the best trainings to help people perform at their highest level, personally, professionally. I’ve seen trends among my clients and have also seen what helps them the most to make changes and create irreversible momentum in their lives. There is so much information out there for people who want to make changes, create better habits, and change their lives, but where do they start? That’s where I created my program based off of real people, real results and real tools to help anyone perform at their highest level.

I love challenging people and giving them a new lens on life to tackle challenges, believe in themselves and have the confidence to create and live their most stellar lives.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

ABSOLUTELY! I would absolutely choose the same profession, I would have just done it sooner! My only difference is I would have studied psychology, mindset, relationships and other topics in this field a lot more. I could have arrived at my destination sooner by pursuing my passion more verses following the jobs that paid the bills. I learned a lot in hospitality though and it was the path that led me to where I am now so I’m grateful for the stepping stone that it was for me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I hosted a free online workshop and had a solid amount of people respond and commit to attending. I was stoked to share the presentation. After the first 5 minutes, no one had shown up on the video call. Then after 10 minutes I was still alone on the call… I was embarrassed and ready to call it a night but I had blocked out the time and had everything ready, so… I decided to deliver the most spectacular workshop the internet had ever seen. It wasn’t recorded and no one was there but I still delivered, asked questions, paused for laughs and reflection and ended with a very quick Q and A.

Did it go well? Absolutely. Was it great practice? Heck yeah. Was anyone there? Nope!

Contact Info:

• Website: livestellarco.com
• Instagram: live.stellar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-grange-performance-mindset-adventure-coach-7105722b/

Image Credits
All my personal photos