Lessons in endurance, consistency, and the power of taking the next step.
I’ve been following the Big’s Backyard Ultra World Team Championship since Saturday, and it’s hard not to be fascinated by what these runners are putting themselves through.
This isn’t your typical marathon. There is no predetermined finish line, no set distance to conquer, and no guarantee of knowing when the race will end.
Instead, runners must complete a 4.167-mile loop every hour, starting again on the hour. They can use whatever time remains to eat, rest, and prepare for the next loop. If they aren’t ready when the next hour begins, their race is over.
In the team championship, runners compete for their countries, with every completed loop contributing to the team’s overall score.
It’s a simple format with an extraordinary challenge: keep going.
And I think there’s something important we can learn from that.
1. Focus on the next step, not the entire journey
Imagine running through the night after spending an entire day on your feet. You’re tired, your body hurts, and you know another loop is coming. You don’t know whether you’ll run another five miles or another hundred.
You can easily become overwhelmed thinking about the total distance ahead.
But you don’t have to solve the entire race at once. You only have to prepare for the next loop.
We face a similar challenge when working toward meaningful goals. Whether we’re recovering from an injury, trying to become more active, managing chronic pain, or making a difficult change in our lives, the distance between where we are and where we want to be can feel overwhelming.
The solution isn’t always to find more motivation or push harder.
Sometimes it’s to narrow our focus.
What is the next thing you can do today?
You don’t have to solve everything. You just have to take the next step.
2. Recovery is part of endurance
One of the most interesting aspects of a backyard ultra is the recovery window.
Runners have less than an hour to complete each loop, and the time left over becomes their opportunity to refuel, address discomfort, change clothes, and rest before starting again.
Running faster isn’t necessarily the answer. A faster loop provides more recovery time, but spending too much energy early can create problems later.
This is a reminder that progress isn’t simply about how much work we can tolerate. It’s also about how well we recover from it.
In exercise, recovery allows the body to adapt to training. In everyday life, sleep, nutrition, stress management, and appropriate activity help us maintain our physical and mental capacity.
This is especially important when dealing with persistent pain. Constantly pushing through discomfort without considering recovery, workload, and individual needs isn’t always productive.
Resilience isn’t just the ability to keep working. It’s the ability to recover well enough to continue.
3. Consistency beats occasional heroics
A single loop of 4.167 miles isn’t particularly extraordinary for a trained ultrarunner. Repeating it hour after hour, through fatigue and sleep deprivation, is something entirely different.
The challenge comes from the accumulation.
The same principle applies to improving our health. One workout won’t transform our fitness. One good night’s sleep won’t erase months of poor sleep. One healthy meal won’t change our overall nutrition.
But repeated small actions can create meaningful change.
We often overestimate what we can accomplish in a day and underestimate what we can accomplish through consistent effort over months and years.
You don’t need every day to be exceptional. You need enough ordinary days in which you follow through on the things that matter.
4. Resilience doesn’t mean ignoring your limits
It’s tempting to look at ultrarunners and conclude that mental toughness means refusing to quit.
I think there’s a more useful lesson.
These athletes are operating at the limits of human endurance, making decisions about pacing, nutrition, discomfort, and recovery. Their challenge isn’t simply to endure suffering. It’s to manage their resources well enough to continue.
In everyday life, resilience requires a similar balance.
Sometimes we need to push through temporary discomfort. Other times, we need to recognize when rest, a change in strategy, or professional guidance is the smarter decision.
That distinction matters in exercise, injury recovery, and chronic pain. Pain isn’t always a signal to stop, but neither is ignoring it a reliable path to success.
The goal isn’t to prove that we can tolerate anything. It’s to make decisions that help us move toward a healthier, more capable life.
5. We aren’t meant to do everything alone
The World Team Championship adds another dimension to the individual challenge.
Each runner contributes to something larger than their own performance. A team benefits not only from its strongest runners but also from the collective effort of everyone who continues adding loops to the total.
That is a powerful reminder that individual resilience and community aren’t opposites.
Support from family, friends, teammates, coaches, and healthcare professionals can help us navigate difficult periods. We may be responsible for taking our own steps, but we don’t have to take every step without help.
Sometimes the difference between giving up and continuing is having someone beside us who understands what we’re working toward.
The takeaway: Keep showing up
Watching this race has reminded me why endurance is about much more than running.
It’s about managing your resources, adapting when things get difficult, recovering when necessary, and remaining committed to the process even when the outcome is uncertain.
We don’t always know how long the journey will take. We don’t always know what obstacles we’ll encounter. And we certainly can’t control every outcome.
But we can focus on what is within our control.
We can take care of ourselves. We can ask for help. We can make the next good decision. And tomorrow, we can do it again.
You don’t have to run 100 miles to practice endurance.
Sometimes endurance is completing your rehabilitation exercises when progress feels slow. Sometimes it’s getting outside for a walk when motivation is low. Sometimes it’s making another attempt after a setback.
Whatever your goal, don’t get so overwhelmed by the finish line that you forget the value of the next step.
You don’t have to finish the entire journey today. You just have to decide what your next loop looks like.
Keep moving forward.
https://www.youtube.com/live/YfvxsQVf2SE?is=oHmaNojSvjlJ9CXr
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