The King of Moab: Ultrarunner Max Jolliffe On Winning Moab 240, Recovery From Heroin Addiction & Why Suffering Is His Greatest Teacher
4/6/20261 hr 41 min
Max Jolliffe is the Moab 240 course record holder, elite ultrarunner, and one of endurance sport's more unlikely origin stories.
This conversation explores Max's multi-generational family history with addiction, the opioid crisis, his decade-long battle with heroin, the moment in a jail cell that changed everything, and how the tools of sobriety – surrender, teachability, the daily reprieve – became the foundation of an athletic career.
Along the way, we get into what it looks like to take an obsessive, addictive mind and aim it at something that gives back.
Max is the real deal. Enjoy!
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First 90 secondsRich Roll· Host0:00
[gentle music] So a little over nine months ago, I underwent spinal fusion surgery, and since then, my focus has shifted away from chasing these really big audacious performance goals like I did in the past to now accepting my limitations in this current reality and learning how to build a daily rhythm that actually feels sustainable for where I'm at right now today. And WHOOP, this wearable health and fitness coach that you see right here on my wrist every time you see me, is this amazing tool that gives me insights into all the things that influence how I feel and how I perform, my sleep, my recovery, my strain, and my overall health so that I can better understand how my habits are influencing how I feel. And what's interesting is how these insights translate beyond training. Better sleep changes improve how I show up at work. Recovery changes how patient I am with my family. And when I'm planning for bigger goals, like lining up to participate in the New York City Marathon to celebrate my 60th birthday this fall, WHOOP helps me stay grounded in what my body needs right now, not what my ego wants it to do or what I used to be able to do. And I think that's really what adding more life to your years means: making decisions today that allow you to show up more fully tomorrow. Go to join.whoop.com/roll for one month free of WHOOP.
Unknown speaker1:26
[upbeat music]