notableworks birth_date genre article_title name occupation
'' running on empty '' 04 july 1951 non-fiction marshall ulrich
 marshall ulrich athlete guide , author , inspirational speaker , trainer ,
marshall ulrich

marshall ulrich is an american ultramarathon runner , adventure racer and mountaineer .
he holds various distinctions in several sports : he has completed 124 ultra marathons averaging over 100 miles each ; has climbed the tallest summit on each continent -lrb- all on first attempts -rrb- , a feat known as the seven summits ; and has finished 12 expedition-length races in adventure racing .
arguably most famous for his exploits in the badwater ultramarathon across death valley , ulrich has finished the race 18 times and crossed death valley a record 24 times , including a 586-mile ` badwater quad , ' covering the course four times -lrb- twice up and back -rrb- , and a self-contained , unaided solo , in which he pulled all supplies -lrb- food , ice , medical -rrb- in a cart that weighed more than 200 pounds at the start .
he won the badwater 146-mile race from minus 282 feet to the 14,494-foot summit of mount whitney an unprecedented 4 times -- and still holds the record to the summit .
-lrb- the race is not run to the summit anymore . -rrb-
in the summer of 2012 , he and dave heckman completed the first-ever trek around the entire perimeter of death valley national park , a total of about 425 miles covered in 16.5 days .
ulrich has raised over $ 850,000 for various charities , including the religious teachers filippini , a small order with a major focus on serving children orphaned by aids in some of the poorest countries in the world .
he provides his services as a speaker , trainer , and guide through dreams in action -lrb- dna -rrb- , encouraging others to `` discover what you 're made of : it 's more than you think . ''
in 1992 , he had his toenails removed in order to avoid chronic problems he experienced due to the extreme number of miles he was racing and training .
in the fall of 2008 , he attempted to break the world record for a trans-american crossing -lrb- currently held by frank giannino -rrb- and completed a 3,063.2-mile run from san francisco to new york in 52.5 days , equal to 117 marathons , or two marathons plus a 10k each day .
ulrich succeeded in setting new masters and grand masters records and recorded the third fastest crossing of the united states on foot .
the effort , which included many injuries and obstacles , was chronicled in the 2010 movie , `` running america '' .
ulrich 's 2011 memoir , `` running on empty , '' gives more of the backstory of the transcontinental run , tells of his other extreme endurance adventures , and reveals his psychological drivers .
brian metzler of `` running times '' called the book `` a sincere original '' with `` candid tales about the loss of his first wife to cancer , his personal challenges of being a parent and rediscovering how to love later in life , as well as overcoming a mountain of self-doubt and insecurity . ''
