This week's athlete highlight covers Kendall Cooper, an amazing athlete who earned his red R last year and continues to strive to make improvements every day.

Hello! Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I’m Kendall Cooper. I discovered OCR/mud running in 2012 at Miami Spartan Super and have been an avid OCR athlete ever since. I’m a father of 3 daughters, an aspiring personal trainer, and a future American Ninja Warrior competitor.

What made you want to sign up for this event in the first place?

I followed the progress of several fellow OCR friends/athletes who attempted the course in 2014; a few completed it and many DNF. They inspired me to see if I could complete the course if I trained hard enough.

The stats for this event are grim. Only about 10% make it. What are you doing to ensure you fall in this rare percentile of finishers?

The combination of a clean diet, strenuous physical and mental endurance training, quality nutrient supplementation, and adequate rest/recovery time will see me through to the finish line. I train six days a week and concentrate on competing in the more demanding OCR/running events (rucks, longer OCR races, Regiment Elite/T3 events, etc.).

What is the biggest challenge you think you will face out on the course?

My biggest challenge will be pacing myself; going fast enough to finish but not so fast that I burn out/become too tired to keep going and DNF.

After this, what are your other goals?

I plan to repeat the UltraBeast in 2016 and earn a Spartan block; I will also train and try out for American Ninja Warrior.