Episode 66: The Power of Sport to Unite Cultures and Extreme Running with Richard Burgunder

Richard Burgunder is an internationally acclaimed adventurer, entrepreneur, and professional extreme athlete. Burgunder is most known as a renowned competitor and the founder of Kurjax, an Extremus company. Burgunder is a five-time Paul Mitchell XTERRA Trail Run Series Regional Champion and is the only runner in XTERRA Trail Run Series history to earn titles in four different regions. Burgunder was selected as the first athlete to the XTERRA Trail Run (XTR) Ambassador Program and a featured speaker at Paul Mitchell XTERRA University trail running clinic at the 2012, 2013, and 2014 XTERRA Trail Run Nationals at Snowbasin Resort in Ogden, UT. Burgunder has been globally recognized as one of the winningest athletes in XTERRA Trail Run Series history. Burgunder was selected five times by the New York Road Runners (NYRR) to compete as an elite athlete in the internationally prestigious Empire State Building Run-Up, known as the stair climbing world championships. Only a couple hundred athletes out of thousands of applicants are invited to this high profile annually held stair-climbing race. In February 2009, Burgunder participated in a stair climbing challenge at the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning, where he ran up 36 flights of stairs 71 times in 15 hours and 34. This was the equivalent to going from sea level to the top of Mt. Everest. Burgunder won national titles for the men's 20-29 age group at the 2008 USA Trail Marathon and 50 Mile Road National Championships. Burgunder is also a two-time top ten medalist at USA Track and Field National Championships as he finished 6th at the 2008 USA Trail Marathon National Championships and 9th at the 2009 50 Mile Road National Championships. Burgunder finished 12th at the 2008 50 Mile Road National Championships. Burgunder was invited and sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank to represent the inaugural Team USA in leg one of The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) 2007/08. Consisting of four exotic marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong, The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) was the world's only marathon team relay series. Burgunder is a two-time qualifying member of Team USA for the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Long Course Duathlon World Championships in Barcis, Italy and Fredercia, Denmark. In his ultramarathon début, Burgunder ran a 3:43:20 to set the record for the fastest 50k time by a 20-year-old resident of Pennsylvania at the GNC 50k in Pittsburgh on March 25, 2000. Burgunder has climbed six of the top ten highest peaks in the contiguous United States, Mt. Fuji, and several other iconic peaks throughout the world. Adventure pursuits have taken Burgunder to 11 countries and 47 states. Burgunder has been featured on CBS The Early Show, ESPN Radio 1280 The Ticket, KDKA-TV CBS Pittsburgh, WBAL-TV 11 NBC Baltimore, Running USA, Colorado Runner, Competitor Magazine, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Pittsburgh City Paper, The XTERRA Planet Magazine, and other major media outlets. Burgunder has been a member of PowerBar Team Elite for eight years and twice named PowerBar Athlete of the Week. A Pittsburgh native, Burgunder has lived across the USA settling in Leadville, CO, Boulder, CO, New York City, Naples, FL, and Arlington, VA. Burgunder holds a BA in Economics from Pennsylvania State University and is pursuing professional development coursework in advanced project management at Stanford University.  Burgunder's personal motto is, "There are no limits," and he applies that standard to everything he does. Website: www.RichardPBurgunder.com