Jamshid Khajavi doesn’t own a TV. He goes to bed every night at 8 p.m. and doesn’t have an alarm to wake him up; his roosters that roam the front yard of his Kirkland home do.

Khajavi lives a simple life, he says, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

In fact, the Seattle school counselor and athlete prefers to push himself and appreciates a good challenge.

Recently, Khajavi, 55, sat on his hardwood living room floor between a backpack and duffle bag, surrounded by several contents: batteries, more than 30 bottles of Boost nutrition energy drinks, cough drops, a flashlight, Clif Shot bloks, water bottles and waterproof clothes that could withstand the elements.

“The most important thing is nutrition,” he said, shuffling through the items he was getting ready to pack for his trip to France where he will compete in the North Face Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc. The five-day race requires runners to pass through three countries.

He had just returned from Colorado, where he completed the Leadville 100 mile race for his seventh time. The race was the last in a series that earned him the Extreme Triple Crown – a title that only himself and one other competitor in the world have ever received (Khajavi and another runner thought up the series last January. It includes the H.U.R.T. 100 mile run in Hawaii and the Susitna 100 in Alaska).

Over the years, he has competed in many ultramarathons – races of 100 miles in distance or longer.

“These races are just like life,” he said, still coughing from a cold he got in Colorado. “So many ups and downs in life, so many obstacles and it’s just an incredible feeling when you complete one of these.”

The Iran native immigrated to San Diego more than 30 years ago. Other than playing soccer in alleys of his home country, he never considered himself an athlete. But he had good friends who competed in races and he learned from them.

The first race he did was a swim through the 21-mile Catalina Channel between Catalina Island and Long Beach, Calif. Since then, he’s completed the swim four times and hopes to one day break the world record of six times.

While preparing to swim the Catalina Channel, his best friend, Mike Devlin, asked Khajavi to run the Wasatch Front 100-mile run with him.

“I said, ‘I can’t do one mile,’” he recalled. “He said, ‘come walk with me for 20 miles. If you want to stop, you can stop.’”

Khajavi’s friend helped him through many races, until he died a few years ago of a brain tumor just as he was training to swim the Strait of Gibraltar.

In Devlin’s honor, Khajavi swam the strait with the ashes of his good friend. He sprinkled half of the ashes on the shore of Morocco and the other half in Spain when he returned.

“I just have to continue doing what he loved to do,” Khajavi said of his friend. “Every time I finish these things, every race I do I cry and I remember him. I cry for a lot of people because you get so emotional.”

He has since swam the Strait of Gibraltar twice and holds the American record for swimming it the fastest.

To prepare for each race, Khajavi meditates every day.

People are so bombarded with worries, he says, and to race you have to keep focused and “go beyond the pain.” The physical pain is nothing after awhile, he said, pointing to some blisters on his feet that developed during the Leadville race.

That race began at 4 a.m. in 40 degree weather. It was so cold that Khajavi had to hold his flashlight under his arm as his hands were too cold to grasp it.

But the cold wasn’t the most extreme part about the race.

“It was hailing and I was in a tank top and shorts,” he said. “I swim in cold water year-round so my body acclimates and I don’t get cold like everybody else.”

It was the altitude that had many runners in a panic. The race begins at more than 10,000 feet and runners climb to nearly 13,000 feet. Everybody gets sick because there’s not enough oxygen, he noted.

During the race, he ran into one of the top United States runners, Beverly Anderson Abbs, who was doing the race for her first time. She was miserable and nauseated, Khajavi said, so he offered her a drink of his Boost.

“Many times people finish the race because you encourage them and others don’t, but everybody without exception helps each other,” he said, adding that the camaraderie is great.

Following his race in Europe, he hopes to swim the Strait of Gibraltar again just before school starts back up.

He works at Bailey Gatzert Elementary school in Seattle, where he has counseled students for more than 15 years. He loves the challenges his career brings and there’s never a day that’s the same, he said.

He also introduced a running club and has taught his kids the love of the sport. He is coordinating a school-based Big Brother, Big Sister Program to set up each student with an adult mentor.

Whether in the classroom or out on the trail, Khajavi practices what he teaches.

“You have to dig deep not to quit,” he tells students.

Even though many of the races he’s done have been miserable, he said he has never quit.

“When you have a hard time and have stress at work or with your relationship or children, you just don’t quit. You need to move on and that’s the beautiful thing about these races. They teach us so much more about ourselves.”