SEALs Recruit Endurance Athletes

There's an interesting article in this month's Outdoor magazine ("Run. Bike. Swim. Shoot. Kill") about how the Navy SEALs are trying to recruit endurance athletes at triathlons, ultra-marathons, and adventure races (since i run marathons, this stuff interests me). They've found that endurance athletes are more likely to survive the training than bigger, more muscular men. In fact, they say that the average SEAL is 5'10", 175 lbs.

The SEAL training, called Basic Underwater Demolition/Seal Training (or BUD/S) sounds hellacious. I found a page about it on the SEAL web site, which also contains this awesome quote:

“The difference between combat and sport is that in combat you
bury the guy who comes in second.”

The article also features a picture of David Goggins, a SEAL whom i've run way, way behind in a couple of races (the Lake Hodges 50k and the Boston Marathon). He's an amazing athlete. He's run the insane Badwater Ultra a couple of times, among many other ultra endurance races. I've seen him also lately in Under Armour ads.