• What Happened: Marine combat veteran Mike Egan, a bilateral amputee, raced 27 hours and more than 110 miles in his wheelchair at the G1M Ultra, outlasting 117 other athletes.
  • Why It Matters: This is the same man who set a Guinness World Record on Veterans Day 2025, covering 152.37 miles in a wheelchair in 21 hours.
  • Bottom Line: He lost his legs in Afghanistan. He got back up. Then he raced 110 miles in a wheelchair and crawled through the mud when the chair gave out. That is what American grit looks like.

In 2012, Marine Cpl. Mike Egan stepped on an IED in Kajaki, Afghanistan. He lost both legs. He underwent more than 40 surgeries. He spent three months in the hospital and a year in rehabilitation. He was 25 years old.

Last weekend, he raced 110 miles in a wheelchair through the mud for 27 straight hours and did not quit until the race demanded it.

Egan, now 38, competed in the G1M Ultra, one of the most brutal endurance formats in existence. The Go One More Ultra is simple and savage. Competitors run a 4.2-mile loop every hour on the hour. Miss the loop. You are done. The race continues until only one person remains standing. One hundred forty-five athletes started. Egan, a bilateral amputee in a wheelchair, lined up alongside all of them.

He pushed for 27 hours. He covered more than 110 miles. When the mud got so thick it locked up his wheels and the wheelchair became immovable, Egan got out of the chair and crawled. He finished in the top 28, outlasting 117 competitors who still had both their legs.

This is not the first time Egan has done something that should not be possible. On Veterans Day 2025, he set a Guinness World Record for the greatest distance covered in a wheelchair in 24 hours, rolling 152.37 miles at Morgan's Wonderland Sports Complex in San Antonio, Texas. He completed the record in 21 hours, well ahead of the 24-hour limit. The previous record was 113.4 miles. He shattered it.

After medically retiring from the Marines in 2014, Egan went back to college, earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, and became a personal trainer. He founded Valorfit, a nonprofit that helps veterans access fitness facilities and group fitness programs, because he believes the gym saved his life and wants other veterans to have the same access. His Guinness record attempt raised over $14,000 for the cause.

When asked what drove him, Egan put it simply. "Your pain isn't your story," he said. "It's just a chapter, so turn the page."

He turned the page. Then he raced 110 miles in the mud and crawled when his wheelchair ran out of road.

Mike Egan is a husband, a father of two, and a Marine who lost both legs in Afghanistan and has spent the years since proving that the body can follow wherever the mind is willing to go. His Instagram is @mikeegan_fit. His nonprofit is Valorfit.