When one thinks of a marathon, certain locations come to mind almost instantly, with cities such as Boston, London, New York and the race's birthplace, Athens, serving as some of the most iconic backdrops for the popular endurance event.
Antarctica, on the other hand, with its harsh climates, lack of development and, most importantly, nonexistent roadways, wouldn't present itself at first glance as the type of location to host a marathon. Despite this, Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC founding partner Rick Kopf and shareholder Chip Cavanaugh joined around 60 others running the Antarctic Ice Marathon in December 2023, the latest example in a series of outdoor adventures Kopf writes about in a memoir he published called "An Ordinary Guy's Extra-Ordinary Adventures."
Starting in 1995, when he participated in the Dallas Marathon, Kopf has embarked on a number of challenging events, including four years doing the Texas Water Safari, an 260-mile canoe race billed as "The World's Toughest Boat Race"; climbing Mounts Rainier and Kilimanjaro; three years doing the Grand Traverse ski race in Colorado; and multiple backpacking trips with friends and family.
"Some of them worked out just great and others not so much, but it was just a matter of doing things with people I had great relationships with, and it gave me the opportunity to try something new," Kopf told Law360 Pulse.
Kopf, a Dallas-based real estate attorney who helped found Munsch Hardt in 1985, spoke with Law360 Pulse about his adventurous lifestyle, preparing for and running a marathon in Antarctica, what drives him to pursue different challenges, and introducing clients to the Southern pastime known as "noodling."
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What leads a successful attorney to put himself in situations most people would never dream of doing themselves?
It really started with an article I saw in The Dallas Morning News about this canoe race from San Marcos down to the Texas coast. I thought, "Hey, a canoe race sounds fun, how hard can it be?" I asked my friends and brothers if they wanted to join and little did we know that it was actually 264 miles long and would take four days of nonstop canoeing with us flipping over a number of times.
We went into it not having any idea what it was that we were doing. We actually showed up to the race with a cooler of beer and fishing poles. We were smart enough to leave them in the car and not let the other contestants see it, but we kind of failed the first time before trying again the following year, which almost killed me because of a heat stroke situation.
We took a bit of time off, but I enjoyed the challenge and eventually, my two brothers and a number of friends started coming up with other things to do. A client invited me to go mountain climbing, so I did that with him and later a number of other friends.
Later on, I did a number of events with my son, and watching him pushing himself in training and getting in shape made for a great experience as well. They didn't all turn out so well, but each one helped shape me as a person.
Why Antarctica, and what was the preparation for the marathon like?
The last marathon I had run was the Boston Marathon in 1996, and I've got a bad knee, so running something as long as a marathon wasn't really in the cards for me. However, a friend of mine ran the North Pole marathon, and he wanted to do the South Pole next. He asked me and a number of other friends to join many times in the following years and in one drunken moment of weakness, I accepted the challenge in 2021 with the goal of running it in two years. Two years felt a long way away, and I figured I'd be in good enough shape to do it by then.
I had stopped running around 15 years before the race, so I had to start from the beginning. About six months ahead of time, I started training, beginning with one mile three times a week for a month, then upping it to two, three, four miles a day and so forth, because I had to get my mileage to a position where I'd be able to run the marathon.
The furthest I ran during my training period was a half-marathon in Dallas and that just kicked my butt. When I finished that thing, it was a struggle to walk back to my car. Three weeks later, I went to Antarctica without any false hopes that I was going to set any kind of speed record. The goal was just to get down there and get it done.
What was the actual experience like?
It's a surreal and beautiful place to be. We were in the middle of Antarctica surrounded by mountains and as much snow as the eye can see. They carved a 6½-mile-square course out of the snow, so we had to run four laps around that.
One of the friends I was there with also had some knee issues, so we decided to run the first two laps, ran/walked the third lap and by the fourth lap, the wind was blowing at around 40mph, so we said, "The heck with it, and we'll just walk and get there eventually," which we did.
Being there with all of the other people running was a neat experience and I really enjoyed the whole process. We were there for three days and met people from all over the world. It was crazy though because out of the 60 or so people that ran, I think eight of us were from Texas. It was a great experience and something that I would recommend to others as well.
What were some of the logistical challenges?
Clothing-wise, you wore a couple of layers on the top and bottom including a wind jacket, gloves, a beanie hat and sunglasses because during their summer, the sun is out 24/7. Because of that, you also had to wear sunscreen just to keep from burning up. One of our guys also told me about these winter running boots with spikes on the bottom that are tight around the ankle so you don't get snow inside, so those worked out very well.
Because it's so cold while running the marathon, one of the things they told us was to leave a change of clothes at the halfway station so that if you broke a sweat, you were able to take off those wet clothes and wear something dry, because that could have otherwise made for a major problem.
They did a good job keeping us fed and hydrated at the halfway station, and they also had a restroom there, because being in the middle of Antarctica, it's a very pristine environment, and they didn't want a bunch of runners urinating on their beautiful white snow. If you had to do so, they wanted you to put a marker in the snow so that somebody on a snowmobile could come by and scoop it up, keeping the environment as nice as it was.
What impact do these experiences have on relationship building?
My approach is that my clients are my friends as well, and I've developed a lot of great relationships with them over the years. For people that maybe aren't up for a four-day canoe trip or a marathon in Antarctica, we still do a number of different things. I once took a group of clients "noodling," which is where you walk down a river, stick your hand in the holes and the catfish comes out and chomps down on your arm. You grab it by the tongue, and it's all yours.
The first time I ever went was actually with clients as well and doing unique things like that establish memories that will last forever. They're not going to forget the lawyer that took them noodling. You need to have the right kind of client to take them on activities like this, but they were up for the challenge.
Any lessons you've learned from these experiences that you apply to the practice of law?
The main thing really is the client focus. As I said, I've always had great relationships with the clients I represent and doing things with them strengthens these bonds, setting a good example for other lawyers in the firm.
A lot of people live their lives in separate compartments where you have one that includes their private life and another with their work life. The old saying is "Never the twain shall meet," but that's a different approach than what I take. For me, the two blend together very much, and I think that's helped with building client relationships and helped keep them around for a very long time.
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