He’s flipped a tire, climbed a rope and smashed the Guinness World Record for pullups, all in the name of raising money and awareness for charitable causes. Next up, Air Traffic Controller 1st Class (AW) Mike McCastle will attempt to pull a Ford F-150 across California’s Death Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCastle\u00a0plans to drag a 2.2.-ton truck for 22 miles through the desert, starting Sunday, to raise awareness about veteran suicide, which the Veterans Affairs Departrment\u00a0Administration <\/span>has estimated occurs up to 22 times a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s an estimate, but it does reflect that there is a problem,” he told Navy Times in a phone interview Monday. “I think that the most important thing is the context. It doesn’t matter if it’s one or 22 \u2014\u00a0the context is that there is a problem.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The feat is part of McCastle’s Twelve Labors Project, an initiative that combines his interest in philanthropy with his world-class fitnessskills as a personal trainer<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past that has translated to thousands of pull-ups in 24 hours, flipping a 250-pound tired<\/span> for 13 miles, climbing a rope until he matched the height of Mount Everest and running 50 kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n For this latest event, he wanted the environment to reflect the cause he’s trying to promote, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’ve gone through my own depression in my life, and it does feel like you’re going through a desert,” he said. “I want to replicate that as much as possible and still come out alive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It will also be his last event on active-duty, as he finishes up terminal leave in early June. The project will continue, he said, while he works on his master’s degree at Portland State University in Oregon and pursues work in the fitness industry, particularly consulting on training programs for the U.S. Olympic Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Going to battle’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n McCastle, who until recently was assigned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, spent four months training two hours, twice a day to get in shape for the truck pull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once a week he would borrow a friend’s truck to practice hooking up his harness, pulling the truck up to two <\/span>2 miles, then supplement with other exercises, like squats weighted down with a sandbag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, the plan revolved around building muscular and cardiovascular endurance: Lifting in the gym, or dragging water-logged driftwood across the beach on the island<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Like a lot of my events, I don’t really like to be around the actual equipment beforehand,” he said. “It’s kind of like an opponent in a boxing match \u2014\u00a0you don’t really want to be around the thing that you’re going to battle with.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming up with a regimen also allowed him to test his skills as a personal trainer, simulating the endurance required for the events through basic exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It allows me to get creative, too, in finding other ways to work the same muscle groups and still test myself, but without actually pulling the truck,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The weather forecast is calling for about 90 degrees in Death Valley on Sunday, so the goal is to stay as cool as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He plans to drive the borrowed F-150 about 30 miles out into the desert, with plenty of ice in the bed and about 30 gallons of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He’ll survive on liquid carbohydrate and protein supplements, but also, “I think I’m going to bring a couple pizzas out there with me this time,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbecue chicken and pineapple, he added, if he can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His plan is to finish in between 18 and 22 hours, pulling about a 1.25 1\/4 <\/span>miles an hour. And he’ll be out there alone, he said, to minimize heat risk to anyone else.\u00a0But he shared his plan with the local emergency department, so they will know where to find him if he doesn’t notify them after 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pulling through<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n McCastle has raised more than $20,000 for various causes since beginning his labors, including more than $7,000<\/a> for the truck pull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This event hits particularly <\/span>close to home, he said, as he’s a veteran who has struggled in the past. A torn anterior cruciate ligament knocked him out of SEAL contention at Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a dream smashed, he looked for other ways to test himself physically and mentally, while giving back to\u00a0struggling\u00a0<\/span>veteranswith injury or depression<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Just because things don’t play out one way doesn’t mean you can’t still make something out of it, still in service to your goals,” he said. “Just because the goal has changed doesn’t mean that I failed at it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n His first attempt at the pullup record in 2014 ended in the hospital, when he taxed his muscles to the point that they started breaking down and poisoning his liver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n