A Mentalist Prepares To Take On A Challenge That Will Test The Limits Of Both Mind And Body With Montauk To Manhattan Run

Since 2012, Oz Pearlman has had a folder in his Gmail inbox marked “M2M.”

For a decade, it stared back at him every time he checked his email — a reminder of a goal not yet achieved.

On Thursday, August 4, he will finally check that box.

In the predawn hours, Pearlman will embark on a run from the Montauk Point Lighthouse, and he won’t stop until he reaches Times Square in Manhattan, nearly 24 hours later. The route will take him along the South Shore of Long Island, and he will stay off the highways, using smaller roads instead.

Pearlman, a New York City resident with a home in Southampton Village, is a mentalist and mind reader by trade, an entertainer who travels all over the country doing shows mainly at corporate functions.

He will be at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, August 21, at 8 p.m. for a show. It’s his first time back at the PAC in four years, and Pearlman said the family-friendly show will include audience-interactive mind reading and mentalism, with meet-and-greet opportunities before and after the show.

He gave up a career on Wall Street 20 years ago to pursue his interests in magic and mind reading. But over the years he also has earned acclaim for his feats as a long distance runner.

Pearlman turned 40 last week, and is a father of three young children. He ran his first marathon in 2004, motivated by simple sibling rivalry — his older sister had run a marathon, and he did not want to be outdone, he said.

“She was one-and-done,” he said, “and I was hooked.”

He continued signing up for marathons, then started winning them. It snowballed from there.

He started training for and entering triathlons, and also competing at longer distances — 50-miles races, 100-mile races, the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, even the Badwater, a 135-mile run through Death Valley in the summer. The farthest he has run thus far was a 153-mile race, from Athens to Sparta, in Greece.

The run on August 4 will be roughly 130 miles, a number that Pearlman said could fluctuate slightly based on his exact route. It’s a distance he’s done before, but he believes this will be one of his biggest challenges ever.

“I have run this far before, yes, but does it get any easier? No,” he said. “It’s still hard to wrap your mind around.”

It’s not simply the number of miles that will be daunting. The fact that it’s not an official race adds an extra layer of difficulty, Pearlman said, because of the solitary nature of the venture. Of course, he will have a team of supporters following him along the route to make sure he’s fueled and hydrated. That team will update his progress on social media, and he’s inviting other runners from across Long Island to join him for portions of his run.

He has done personal challenge runs like this before, most recently in April, when he ran 19 loops of Central Park, a total of 116 miles, setting the record for most Central Park loops completed in a single day.

While the August run will be similar in nature, there are some significant differences. Pearlman does not expect to be joined by as many people on the Montauk to Manhattan run as he was in Central Park. The absence of cars in the park made it easier for other runners to join in, creating more distraction. He’ll also be running from point A to point B rather than making the same loop over and over.

Pearlman explained his long-simmering desire to complete a run from the end of Long Island to the other end, and into the city.

“It was something I always had in my head,” he said. “There was something about looking at the map, and I’d love to be able to say I’ve run that whole thing. It’s not to impress others — most people think I’m nuts. It’s mostly a self-driven thing. Why do people climb Mt. Everest? You don’t know. It’s just something I want to see if I can pull off.”

In many ways, it is a fool’s errand to try and pinpoint the source of motivation for people who do things like climb Mount Everest or run more than 100 miles in 120-degree heat in Death Valley, or spend 24 hours straight running from one end of Long Island to another. The urge to ask for an explanation remains.

The rare individuals to whom those questions are posed will try their best to explain why they are eager to participate in something that will make you feel “like you’re being turned into beef jerky” — Pearlman’s description of what the Death Valley run was like — or that destroys your stomach in ways that no one reading this article really wants to hear about. (Pearlman offered some graphic details about what a run from Key Largo to Key West in Florida humidity did for his digestive system — it wasn’t pretty.)

The body rebels in so many different and excruciating ways. It’s what the mind does in that situation that fascinates and animates Pearlman, which is not a surprise given what he does for a living.

“It’s a war of attrition,” he said. “How tough are you mentally? Problems will arise, and you try to troubleshoot for them, but sometimes it doesn’t work, and you have to deal with it. You have to put it in your mind before you start that you won’t quit. If you don’t have that, you’ll hit such lows during the run that you’ll want to give up. The dark voices can be hard to silence.”

Pearlman pondered further why he keeps coming back after each time he is brought to his knees by another extreme running challenge and fights through the pain to emerge victorious.

“I think it gives me purpose in my life,” he said. “I love being a dad, it’s one of the most fulfilling things in the world, and I like to achieve within my career, and earn a good living to provide for my family — but those goals are very easily palpable. There’s nothing I can put on my calendar and say, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that. I like going into something not knowing if I can do it.

“What I find intoxicating is, while you’re doing it, the suffering and giving it your all and not knowing if it will work out, it’s a rush,” he continued. “There are parts where you feel terrible, but it’s such a great story after you do it.

“In the Hamptons, it’s kind of like everything can be bought. But you can’t buy achievements. You have to put in hard work and do it, and there’s something fulfilling about that.”

To track Pearlman’s progress and his Montauk to Manhattan journey on August 4, follow ozthementalist on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.