Charlie Engle (marathoner)

Charlie Engle: World Renowned Ultra-Adventurer, Author & Inspirational Speaker [1]

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Charlie navigates through a sand storm in the Sahara Desert with his running mates Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin. This world-record setting expedition was documented in a film, Running the Sahara. It is narrated by Matt Damon, directed by James Moll, and has musical contributions by Pearl Jam and Wyclef. The official score was composed by Hans Zimmer.

Charlie Engle (born September 20, 1962), is an ultramarathon runner and author.

Early life and education

Charlie Engle was born on September 20, 1962, to mother Rebecca Ranson and father Richard Engle. His parents were students at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) when Engle was born. His mother was aiming to be a playwright, while his father majored in English. His father played college basketball his freshman year for Dean Smith. Engle's grandfather on his mother's side was Dale Ranson, a prominent track and field coach at UNC for whom the university's cross-country course is named. In eighth grade, Engle ran his first mile in under five minutes for the first time. After living in California for a time, he moved to Southern Pines, North Carolina with his father and stepmother in 1976 and began attending Pinecrest High School. He was class president and excelled in athletics. As the lead quarterback for the football team, Engle drew attention from college recruiters and received scholarships offers.

Engle enrolled in UNC, like his parents, but soon began to have problems with alcohol and cocaine, which caused him to falter in his academics. During Engle's junior year his father, who was then living in Seattle, Washington came to pick Engle up after a concerned call from one of Engle's fraternity members. Removed from UNC, Engle started to spiral, bouncing from job to job as he battled his addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Years later in July 1992 while Engle was working in Wichita, Kansas, one of his cocaine binges ended with his car being shot at with a spray of bullets. He decided that day to turn to a life of sobriety and hasn't used drugs or alcohol since. Engle began regularly attending a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that day and overcame his addiction. He frequently mentions that day as helping motivate him, stating to Runner's World: "That was my lowest low. The day when I woke up."

Career

Engle started running marathons in 1989. His first was the Big Sur marathon and he ran in several more marathons, including the Boston Marathon, before getting sober. Engle entered his first ultra-marathon by accident in Brisbane, Australia, in 1996, thinking he was entering shorter-distance event. He still managed to win the men's division and began entering endurance competitions around the world. After seeing an Eco-Challenge on the Discovery Channel, Engle registered to participate in one of the events. He described himself as a "documentary filmmaker" despite having limited experience in the hopes that the statement would be self-fulfilling. When Engle was accepted into the Borneo Eco-Challenge he was asked by CBS about having him shoot footage of the event for the series 48 Hours, which ended up using eleven minutes of footage that Engle shot. Following the Borneo challenge, Engle went on several weeks later to complete the annual Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.

His camerawork for 48 Hours helped Engle get a job as part of the camera crew for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and eventually he became a producer for the show. During his time with the show, Engle continued doing work in car dent repair and continued competing in endurance events. The contacts he had developed in the entertainment industry from working on Extreme Makeover helped Engle get director James Moll to film a documentary of the Sahara expedition.

Engle is a freelance writer for several magazines, including Runner's World. His first book, a memoir published by Scribner (an imprint of Simon & Schuester) has received high critical acclaim. It was released on September 13, 2016. The book is titled Running Man. Running Man has been published all over the world, in eight languages. It is also available in i as an audio book, narrated by Charlie himself.

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Charlie's memoir deals with diverse themes. He recounts running adventures all over the world, as well as difficulties such as overcoming addiction and the tender emotions of his facing his mother's Alzheimer's Disease. The overall mood of the book is that no matter what happens to us in life, we all have the strength to keep moving forward. The pages are lightened up in key moments by Charlie's notably unique sense of humor.

Running Achievements

• 2015 Racing the Planet, Ecuador. Winner of age division and fourth top-five finish in this racing series.
• 2016 Icebreaker Run Lead a 6 person running team across the United States. As a team, the runners ran 24 hours a day for 24 straight days to raise awareness for mental health and addiction services.

External Links / Videos

• website: http://charlieengle.com/
• Engle on SportsCenter discussing Running the Sahara & Running Man
• Charlie Engle: Author of Running Man—Simon & Schuster Video
• Engle's Adventure Reel: "I'm into Pain"
• Engle speaks at the DO Lectures 2012
• Beating Drug Addiction to Run Across the Sahara—Google Zeitgeist Talk 2016
• Charlie Engle at IMDb
• Running in Place - Official blog.