[powerpress]
Addicts are seekers.
We want what everyone wants – to feel connected, loved, understood. Drugs and alcohol are very reliable at providing those things. Temporarily. But when you take that away, that hardwired predisposition for extreme experiences doesn’t disappear. You’re going to find another way to channel it.
For Max Jolliffe, that outlet is ultrarunning. And the arc that led him there is one of the more compelling origin stories I’ve come across.
Max is a Costa Mesa, California native and Moab 240 course record holder. He comes from a long line of addiction – both parents, grandparents on each side, generations deep. As he puts it, his heritage isn’t English or European descent. It’s alcoholism.
At 14, a car hit him while he was crossing the street. They gave him morphine in the ER. They sent him home with a prescription for oxy. Ten years followed – oxy, then heroin, then jail. He didn’t run his first step until he was 25, quite by mistake, while recovering from a pair of broken ankles.
What makes Max’s story salient is the through line between where he came from and what he became. The obsessive, seeking mind that nearly destroyed him is the same mind that carried him 240 miles through the Utah desert. That isn’t a coincidence.
“Nothing will ever be as hard as getting sober. No matter how much pain I’m in during a race – nothing is worse than kicking heroin in jail.”
– MAX JOLLIFFE
Today, we get into:
- Multi-Generational Addiction & the Opioid Crisis
- Being beaten into willingness
- Growing Up in the Program of AA
- Addicts as Seekers & the Hardwired Predisposition for Extreme Experience
- The Tools of Sobriety as a Blueprint for Athletic Performance
- From Stair Climber to Moab 240 Course Record
- Obsessiveness Put to Good Use
For those who prefer a visual experience, the conversation is available on YouTube. As always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Max brings a raw, unguarded honesty that I find moving. His willingness to share the darkest chapters of his story – and what he built from scorched earth – speaks to the power of willingness, community, and finding the right outlet for an obsessive mind.
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