Obsess. Break Yourself. Repeat: Joey Camps on the Art of Suffering

Free Outside

Jeff Garmire

August 22, 202535 min
Running

Obsess. Break Yourself. Repeat: Joey Camps on the Art of Suffering

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Episode Notes

This one was a long time coming. I finally got to sit down with Joey Campanelli — aka Joey Camps — who’s been quietly putting together one of the wildest, most hardcore FKT resumes in existence. From a 2014 Appalachian Trail junk show with a ski pack and trench foot, to the 2017 self-supported AT finish that just happened to be three days behind Stringbean’s historic run… Joey’s stories are brutal, honest, and somehow hilarious.

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We dig into:

Why he sucks at running (his words)

Getting into FKTs by way of Ironman, Utah mountains, and ultra-running girlfriends

The infamous "Limp-a-thon" after tearing his quad on the AT

How to do 50-mile days in pain… for weeks

The mindset behind Nolan’s 14 and why he slept in an altitude tent for it

Nutrition strategies involving watch alarms and resupply math in gas stations

What it's like being second-fastest ever on the AT… in the same year someone breaks the record

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro & Joey’s FKT Origin Story

03:30 – The AT Junk Show & Learning the Hard Way

06:00 – The Limp-a-thon: Injury, Grit, and Nearly Beating Stringbean

10:30 – Post-FKT Fallout & Mental Recovery

13:00 – Nolan’s 14: Obsession, Altitude Tents, and 41 Hours of Glory

17:00 – Fueling, Mindset, and Why You Go All In

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