I'm a Runner: Bear Grylls

'Man vs. Wild' star is an avid runner when he's not braving the elements.

April 4, 2011

Occupation: Host of Man vs. Wild
Age: 36
Residence: Abersoch, U.K.

How did you get started running?

When did you get back into running?
What is your routine like these days?
Now I really enjoy running. We live in a pretty hilly area in North Wales, and I run three times a week for about 40 minutes as part of my training. Bruce Lee once said running is the king of all exercises, and he was right. It's kind of a staple. I also do circuit-training and yoga.

Do you run alone?
I usually run with my dog, a Labrador, and we're getting a new puppy, an English springer spaniel. She's going to be a crazy runner, that one. I think it's fun running with dogs. They're always so fit and fast. Sometimes, I take my kids and go off on this great cross-country run. My oldest son, Jesse, who's 7, drives this little motorized quad bike [ATV] and the middle one, Marmaduke, clings onto his waist. And they bump along these paths through the woods while I run and we kind of chat. Then I'll stop and do sit-ups, and they'll just chill and chat. I really love that. I like to time my run for when they get back from school. It's fun with the dogs and them.

What about your youngest son, [2-year-old] Huckleberry?
Sometimes, if the others are at school, I'll run with Huckleberry on my shoulders. It's like having on a heavy daypack. I run along and he's up there, head bobbing. My wife will say, "That's not healthy for his head!" I did that with all my sons when they were little. I'd take them on my shoulders and go for runs.

Does your wife run?
She says the area is too hilly. I tell her to walk fast up the hills and run down. But she kind of gets discouraged. She said maybe she'd buy a treadmill, and I was like, "What do you mean? We live surrounded by this beautiful countryside!"

Will you encourage your sons to run when they're old enough?
Yes. I did my first run with my eldest the other day. He's pretty damn heavy now—he's 7—but I carried him piggyback while I ran for maybe 15 minutes, then I set him down and he'd jog for a while. Then when he got tired of running, I'd carry him piggyback again. By the end he was pretty proud that he'd done a run with me.

Do you listen to music?
Sometimes. My kids keep putting songs on my iPod. Sometimes I'll be running along and some pirate song will come on. I quite like it, though. It makes me laugh.

Do you ever get recognized when you're out running?
Occasionally. I just kind of wave and be polite and keep running. When I'm at home, my neighbors will lean on a gatepost and want to chat. I always say, "Listen I've got to keep going, but we'll chat later."

You broke your back in a parachuting accident when you were 22, and you've said it was your fitness level that saved you from having your vertebrae fused. Were you running then?
I think the fact that I was fit was part of it. But an awful bigger part was luck. I missed severing my spinal cord by a millimeter. But I was helped by the fact that I was young and fit. I also got amazing health-care through the military. I was getting eight to 10 hours a day of physiology, whereas most people who are injured go maybe one hour a week. So that's really what helped me get back on my feet

You still have back pain; does it affect your running?
It's weird. Exercise helps my back. If I don't exercise, that's when it starts to hurt. The pain is a good motivator to run and exercise. I'm convinced the key to my recovery has been movement, slowly working out, getting the blood flowing. I'm lucky, in a sense, that when my back starts to hurt, I know it's time to exercise.

I read you did a lot of running to get ready for climbing Mt. Everest. What was your routine?
To get ready to climb Everest, I did a lot of hill running with a daypack on and a lot of underwater swimming. I would swim a couple of lengths underwater and then a couple above. It gets your body going with limited oxygen. There's no magic to running far or climbing Everest. Endurance is mental strength. It's all about heart. It's about having balls.

Do you run in the remote places that you go to when you're filming Man vs. Wild?
When we're filming Man vs. Wild, it seems like we're always running. Once we were filming in Siberia. It was minus 40 degrees, and we were out running in these massive down snowsuits and parkas. It was a funny sight. Another time, I was on a desert island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I would get up in the morning and run round and round this tiny little island. I get to run in amazing places, but I still love to get out on a familiar home route.

Have you run any marathons?
I ran the 2003 London Marathon in a ball gown and a wig to raise money for multiple sclerosis. My wife's dad died of MS that year. The costume weighed almost as much as me. It was this heavy ball gown and a three-foot-high wig. I got really bad chafing from the dress, and every time I lifted it up to apply Vaseline, the crowd went "Woo!" It took me ages to finish [4:30].

Since you're known for eating unusual things, have you found any treats in the wild that seem to be good for pre- or postrun?
The show is about survival, so I've eaten things like sheep's eyeballs, maggots, and grubs, but I don't do that at home. Some of this "food" has protein and will give you a boost, but that's desperation, survival food. That doesn't necessarily mean they're good for you or you need to eat them when you're back home. I don't normally finish a run and look for a worm. I look for fruits or nuts. You have to put the good stuff into your body when you're training.

I hear you're into barefoot running. How did that come about?
I was hanging out with these freerunners [Parkour enthusiasts] and we were running and taking these big jumps off of 15-foot concrete walls. I noticed they weren't wearing cushioned [running shoes] and that surprised me. But they said they felt it was more important to learn how to use your body to land softly. That opened my eyes to the idea of running barefoot. Now, I love running barefoot and in minimal trainers. It's changed the whole way I run—away from heel-striking to a much more sensitive, nimble, intuitive, kid's style of running. It feels weird at first and I got very stiff calves, but after a while I found my times were faster and the impact on my joints was much less.