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Film featuring ultra-endurance athlete to kick off event  at Wright State

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By Ken McCall, Staff Writer 12:35 AM Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Ultra-endurance athlete Charlie Engle loves pain.

But that’s not the real reason he ran across the Sahara Desert.

“Suffering is the core teaching tool for all of us,” said Engle, who will be the keynote speaker Friday, March 5, at the Adventure Summit at Wright State University. “Human beings just don’t learn anything from the things that comes easy. We’re just not built that way. And I choose to put myself out there and see what happens.”

So the 47-year-old North Carolina native and two friends ran 4,500 miles across the world’s largest desert through four countries in 111 days, averaging 42 miles per day. In the process, they filmed a documentary, produced and narrated by movie star Matt Damon, called “Running the Sahara.” The film, directed by Academy Award-winning documentarist James Moll, will be screened for free Thursday night at the Wright State Student Union.

Engle has run more than 100 marathons, dozens of triathlons, several Eco-Challenge expedition races, ridden a bike across the U.S., and won races across the Gobi Desert and through the Amazon jungle. He admitted the drive to go to such extremes may seem perplexing. But his motivation, he says, is very simple.

“Adventure for me is nothing more than my way of finding out more about myself,” Engle said. “You know, I’m not addicted to the running or the adventure itself, I’m addicted to the experiences that I have during those events.”

Those experiences have taught him a number of lessons.

“It’s my contention that all of my success in running, in business, and in my personal life is 100 percent based on my ability to adapt to changing circumstances,” he said.

Engle’s biggest, most important change came nearly two decades ago. Drugs and alcohol almost killed him. But when he hit bottom at age 29 and decided to clean up, he did two things: He attended Alcoholic Anonymous meetings every day and ran 30 marathons in three years.

And he was hooked.

“I got addicted to that feeling of being on the start line and the incredible energy that comes from being surrounded by people with a similar goal.”

From marathons, he went to ironmans and ultramarathons and ultimately, the Sahara.

Running has done more than feed his soul. He and Damon and others created the nonprofit H2O Africa Foundation that has raised more than $5 million and helped to drill some 400 clean-water wells in northern Africa.

“I never tell anyone else what they should do,” he said. “That’s not my place. It’s my job to tell stories and allow people the opportunity to motivate themselves.”

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