Become Unstoppable

You can be unstoppable - starting today.

It doesn’t matter if you’re slow, back of the pack, or have DNF’d a bunch of races.

The only thing in your way is a simple thought error that’s easy to fix - thinking ‘unstoppable’ means you don’t DNF.

That’s trying to be un-DNF-able, which creates so much fear of a DNF, it actually convinces you to quit because you “knew” you weren’t going to finish anyway. It’s not the way to become unstoppable.

Being truly unstoppable doesn’t mean you stop having DNFs and finish every race. In fact, it doesn’t have much to do with DNFs at all.

The real definition of unstoppable is someone who keeps playing the sport, regardless of finishes, wins, DNFs, setbacks, disappointments, or any other result.

It’s bigger than a race. It’s how you approach the sport. It’s being unstoppable in the sport, however your races go.

It means you never stop working to get better at it. It’s playing the long game, looking at it from a bigger view.

One race is a finite game. It has a beginning and an end. Winners, finishers and DNFs.

Ultrarunning is an infinite game. It has no end unless you quit running. There’s no winner, finisher or DNF. We all keep playing.

Mastery, not finishing with a spotless record, is the name of the game.

That’s how I’ve run as many 100s as I have. The fun for me is in upping the level of challenge in some way, seeing what I can do, and mastering the sport. That may involve DNFs, and while it’s not the result I want, it’s ok. It’s a price well worth paying to play the game.

Being unstoppable is easy in one respect – keep running races and doing the best you can. But it can feel hard in another - it requires the mental strength to open yourself up to potential disappointment and keep going when you can’t count on finishing and the disappointment might be real.

That’s what we admire about someone who’s unstoppable. We know what it takes to keep solving problems, showing up, and giving it our true best when there’s a fair chance the race won’t end the way we want.

They can do it because they know there’s really no finish line or failure. There’s always the next race. The game isn’t over unless they quit ultrarunning.

To become unstoppable like this, you have to decide what winning looks like to you.

You have to accept the risk you could DNF the races you want to run and go for them anyway.

You have to stop fearing DNFs and start planning to finish.

You have to turn the moment you want to quit into the moment you dig deep.

And you have to use all the experiences from a race - good and bad - to do better next time.

That’s how you become unstoppable. 

It doesn’t take natural talent.

All it takes are mindset skills and the decision to keep playing the infinite game of ultrarunning.