In an interview with General Petraeus (from Willy Stern of Runner’s World) we find out is Petraeus’s signature phrase to buck it up, do more. No surprise General Petraeus is a fitness machine.

Petraeus doesn’t do a conventional job interview for his aides. He takes them out running followed an intense workout.

I can’t divulge specifics for security reasons. After all, military bases here in Iraq are periodically hit by mortar and rocket attacks. (While this indirect fire poses a threat to all personnel, runners face additional risk because they don’t wear standard body armor and Kevlar helmets.) Still, I am allowed to reveal that we are in one of Saddam Hussein’s former estates. The massive palace is filled with gold-inlaid bidets and the grounds are dotted with artificial lakes. This is where Petraeus runs in Baghdad. The 55-year-old general is intense about many things. Exercise is one of them. Petraeus, who has raced two miles in less than 10 minutes, was a three-sport standout in high school, and went on to compete in intercollegiate soccer and skiing at West Point. Then and now, he has an unapologetic zeal for competition: “You can always wear your opponents down, keep hammering at them until you beat them.”

snip…..Petraeus’s aide-de-camp, Maj. Everett Spain, relates how he came to work for the general at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Spain, 37, has a Duke M.B.A., a goofy smile, and a notebook that he carries at all times to jot down his boss’s latest thoughts. “I got the call to meet the general at the gym at 0600 in my PT [physical training] clothes,” says Spain. “He took me out for a brutal five-mile run. We competed for another hour, one-on-one, in the gym. He beat me up pretty good. A little while later, I found out that he’d picked me as his next aide. That was my job ‘interview.’ We never talked about much but the workout.”

This is a revealing interview into the pysche of General David Petraeus. I know I’d never make through his interview process!

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