When San Diego multifamily investor Coleman Cox decided this year to embrace the Japanese concept of "misogi" — a personal challenge designed to push one's limits — he chose one of Southern California's most grueling trail runs.
Cox, co-founder of Vintage Real Estate Partners, signed up for Tough Mugu, a beastly 16-mile trail run with epic views that traverses the ridges of the Santa Monica Mountains in Point Mugu State Park. The challenge was particularly daunting given that Cox had never run more than five miles and had zero trail running experience.
Not one to shy away from new ventures in the real estate world, either, Cox founded Vintage in 2023. The firm focuses on sub-institutional multifamily assets, or those a notch below institutional investments, typically valued between $3 million and $30 million.
He developed his athletic skills playing baseball for four years at Menlo College in Northern California, but the sport did not require a ton of endurance building, he said.
“I’ve been training since the start of the year, usually with a longer trail run every Saturday, and some shorter or flat ground runs mixed in during the week,” Cox told CoStar. “I’m in San Diego so luckily there is a fair amount of trails throughout the county I was able to use."
The training regimen made him feel like an athlete again — at least until the actual race day. During Tough Mugu's first climb, "a girl covered in glitter and wearing a tutu ran by me," providing a humbling reminder that trail running attracts all types of athletes.
Despite the challenge, Cox completed the mountainous course in just under 11 minutes per mile, meeting his personal goal.
"Overall, I felt pretty good with my performance but definitely was exhausted by the end of it," Cox said. "I'm a big believer that doing hard things is a 'skill' that can be developed and is one of the rare traits that can carry over from one discipline of your life into all disciplines of your life.”