Mike Gossie grew up in upstate New York, where he began running at age 14 to help his then-obese father lose weight. Since then, he has completed 15 marathons, eight of them coming after doctors told him in 2000 that he would never run another marathon because of a genetic disease. In 2006, he learned how to swim and did his first sprint triathlon. In April 2008, he completed Ironman Arizona. Gossie is also an avid mountain biker, tennis player, and practitioner of Bikram yoga.