The Route 48 Challenge—Running 4 Miles | Every 4 Hours | for 48 Hours | in 12 Different locations between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles— started with two friends (Nico & David) who wanted to complete the standard David Goggins 4x4x48 Challenge together.

After sharing the idea with some like-minded friends, we began brainstorming about how we could add our own flavor to the challenge. Could we do each of the twelve 4-mile runs in twelve different cities? How would we sleep and recover in between runs?

A bus and a plan

Two weeks later, we had bought a school bus and were down in North Carolina beginning the renovation with our conversion guru, Drew! The Route 48 Challenge was becoming a reality.

Check out the build on our IG Page. Such a transformation!

Finding a cause for the Route 48 Challenge to support

Concurrently with the brainstorming of the event, we were having discussions about the social cause we wanted to address, and it wasn’t long before we realized that we all had a strong connection with the importance of exercise for mental health. Once we found Still I Run, we couldn’t wait to reach out to Sasha and join the community of runners for mental health!

Our group of friends consists of ex-athletes who have all transitioned out of elite sports at some stage of their life. Over the last few years, many of us have found the transition challenging, especially from a mental health perspective. Exercise – specifically running for some of us – has been crucial throughout that life adjustment. We wanted to share our journey with others and become runners for Mental Health Awareness.

Friends and David Goggins fans

We are a group 15 friends, most of which have connected through sport at some point in our lives. We are all huge fans of David Goggins and hope we can get him to hear about our project!

Follow the adventure!

You can follow our story through our Instagram page official_route_48 and donate here!