Play Your Own Game

Are you doing ok in ultrarunning—training, racing—but feeling unfulfilled and not sure why?

Wondering if this is just how it is, that losing your love for the sport is inevitable? Or whether it’s something you can fix?

I’ve been there, and fixing this was a game-changer for my success. It can be for yours, too.

When I started ultrarunning in the late 1990s, I was lucky to have a small group of friends to train and race with. We were the only ultrarunners in our state.

One year, a bunch of us decided to run Leadville 100. We traveled together, shared a house—and all DNF’d.

The next year, we returned to finish. But I saw my friends dropping, and then found myself 15 minutes off pace at the 50-mile mark—just like before. Instead of pushing through, I dropped again. Part of me didn’t want to be the only one in the house to finish. I regretted it immediately.

Several of those friends decided they were done making ultrarunning a priority - it was only a hobby anyway, and it was time to move on. But I wasn’t done—I was committed. I wanted more than ever to finish Leadville. I wanted to run more ultras.

I had to go my own way.

And several of those friends said they were done making ultrarunning a priority - it was only a hobby anyway - where I wanted to double down on the challenge and figure out how to finish Leadville. And run more ultras. I was far from done - I was committed to the sport

At the same time, I didn’t want ultrarunning to define me entirely. I had a full-time engineering job, was remodeling an old house, and had other interests. I didn’t want to spend every weekend racing or wear outdoorsy clothes all the time. But the only approaches I saw were either making ultrarunning your whole life or treating it as just a casual hobby—neither felt right to me.

Those are the Default Games most ultrarunners play. But they weren’t mine.

I wanted to see what I was capable of—what distances I could run, what places I could see, and what experiences I could have.

So I decided to play the ultra game my way.

I took it seriously. I set about to solve the mental side that was making me drop out. I prioritized my favorite distance—100 miles. I chose races I wanted to run, not the ones I was supposed to want to run. For some races I set a time goal, and for some I aimed for a certain experience. I doubled up races when I felt like it and took long breaks when I had other priorities. As long as I was doing it my way, that was all that mattered.

That approach has kept me in love with ultrarunning for 29 years, and counting. It’s not about how many races I’ve run or any particular achievement. It’s that I’m spending my life doing what I love, why I’m doing it, and how I’m doing it.

Maybe you want to feel that way about ultrarunning again—or at least enjoy it more. But you’ve been playing the Default Game—either treating it as a hobby or making it your whole life—because you thought that’s what you were supposed to do.

You’ve been trying to win at someone else’s game, and it’s left you unfulfilled.

The solution? Play the ultrarunning game your way.

• Decide how you want to play the game - why you do it, what it means to you and how it fits in your life.

• Set the rules - which races, when, how you run them and why.

• Define success - a worthy challenge, a podium finish, a goal time, soaking up the scenery, just finishing?

When you play your own game, you stop feeling like you’re falling behind.

You stop comparing, because you’re running a different race than everyone else.

You find deeper satisfaction in improving your own version of the sport.

You run the races you truly want to run—and know exactly why you’re running them.

You feel at peace with your goals, even if they don’t match anyone else’s.

And the best part? When you stay committed to your own path, one day you’ll look back and realize—without even trying to keep up—you’ve gone further than you ever imagined.