This year the endurance athlete community logged into watch the famous David Goggins compete in the Moab 240 mile Ultra Race. The story that unfolded was interesting. He got lost and disappeared off the tracking map. When everyone started to get concerned for him, he shows back up and starts climbing back from near last place to make a good show of the race. Then his health falls apart, he gets taken to the hospital and everyone is freaking out. He gets released from the hospital the next day and true to his form, he goes back out and finishes the race, even though he was disqualified. Even the great David Goggins can face adversity and find himself in serious trouble.
However, that is not the message of this blog article. I instead use that story as the intro to the 2017 Moab 240 race. In 2017, something bizarre happened in the racing community. It started in December of 2016. A runner ran almost 150 miles in a 24 hour race in Phoenix, blowing away the field of competitors and setting new records. Then in early February, had a repeat performance in California getting to over 155 miles in that same 24 hour period. This same runner would go on to place high in 12 major races and this would culminate in winning the Moab 240 with a course record of 52 hours and 55 Minutes and 13 Seconds. She would end up beating the 2nd place finisher by over 10 hours.
Yup, you read that right. A woman destroyed a field comprised primarily of men. Courtney Dauwalter, among many other women, have begun to change the landscape of ultra long distance races. The reason? In my opinion, the reason is that in shorter races men usually have a biological advantage. That does not mean a woman cannot beat a several less trained men, but on average men have the advantage and the race results show that. In really long races the physical toughness plays less of a role, and the ability to win a race like this comes down to the mind. Courtney did well in that Moab race because she is a well trained endurance runner, but she dominated the competition because of her sheer mental toughness. With the distance neutralizing all the physical traits, a runner trying to stay awake on their feet and pushing through greater than 2 days of running the only thing they have left is their mind.
So the sport of endurance running has began to change. More and more women are finding success in some of the big endurance runs and consequently you will more often then not see 1 or 2 women standing in the top 10 spots at the end, and in some cases winning the entire race outright. This proves that mental toughness knows no bounds. No matter the gender, age, heredity, or any other factor – everyone has the ability to lock down their minds and overcome any obstacle be seriously tough.
You do not have to be weak of mind. You do not have to give in to temptation, or be lazy, or procrastinate, or any other sign of mental weakness. You can be strong. You can be tough. All you need is a little training.
Huh? You can train your mind to be mentally tough? Yes you can, just like with physical labor, you can build mind calluses that make you tougher. How? You quite simply put yourself through mentally exhausting trials and persevere no matter what. When you make it through it, you come out stronger, having the knowledge that when your mind is pushed you can and will overcome. So mental toughness is a skill that can be developed and improved over time and with practice and repetitive exercises. The more you push the more resilient you become, this is indeed a life skill just as important as writing or speaking.
Now I am not encouraging anyone to go run 240 miles in 3 days straight to prove that you are mentally tough, but I am encouraging that we all incorporate something into our lives that does require us to work on overcoming mental resistance. I have been experimenting. I have tried fasting, memorizing large numbers, running long distances, just sitting and doing nothing for a long stretches. I have even contemplated signing up or doing the type of work that I hate, just to that I can overcome the mind and do it anyway. Many different types of activities can be mentally difficult to get through. Long boring repetitive things, really physically difficult things, mentally challenging exercises that require you to really think for a period of time. Anyone of these are great candidates to improve your mental toughness. Solving a complex puzzle every morning, writing at least a full page of a journal, going an extra 5 miles on the treadmill, watching yet another episode of House Hunters. There are many things out there that you can put your mind to and overcome and build mental resilience.
So there you go, you can become mentally tough. You just need to work at it, and be deliberate. You may not be as tough an endurance runner as Courtney, but you can train your mind to be tough at something. Once you have realized that you are tough in one thing, you find that you can be tough in anything.
Guy Reams
