Charlie Engle

About

Charlie Engle (born September 20, 1962) is an American ultramarathon runner, author, and public speaker whose athletic career is inseparable from his story of recovery from addiction. After years of struggling with alcoholism and cocaine throughout his twenties — a period that ended in July 1992 when a drug binge concluded with his car being shot at, prompting him to walk into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that same afternoon — he channeled his sobriety into endurance sport. He ran his first marathon in 1989 at Big Sur and entered his first ultra in 1996 in Brisbane, Australia, not knowing the distance, and still won the men's division. The defining achievement of his career came in 2006: alongside teammates Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin, he ran 4,300 miles across the Sahara Desert in 111 days, raising millions for the clean-water charity H2O Africa — a feat documented in the 2008 film Running the Sahara. He published a memoir, Running Man, in 2016. His story also includes a 2010 bank fraud conviction and 21 months in federal prison, a chapter he has since addressed publicly as part of an ongoing conversation about addiction, ambition, and the possibility of second chances.

Notable Wins

• — Men's division Brisbane Ultra 1996
• — Sahara crossing 2006 (4
• — 300 miles
• — 111 days
• — with Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin)

Race History

Recent Coverage