Leadership Lessons From the Ultramarathon Trail - Life Fulfilled Podcast

Topics in this episode

leadership lessons overcoming fear conquering fear

Episode notes

Most leadership advice is about what you do when people are watching. Mike Reynold's best lessons came from fifteen years of showing up when no one was, mile after mile, chasing whatever scared him most. A doctor once told him his running career was over: no marathons, no fun runs, no running with his kids, or he'd risk a hip replacement before 40. Mike waited, gained some weight, and stopped moving. Then, on a friend's back porch during COVID, he decided to try again anyway, one slow lap at a time, and started rebuilding more than his fitness. Fifteen years, a $300 bike, and more than fifty interviews with endurance athletes later, Mike has completed obstacle course races, a full Ironman, and ultramarathons up to fifty miles. The same lesson kept showing up on every course: leadership isn't a title you're given. It's built through thousands of small choices nobody sees. This episode isn't really about the races. It's about what a government affairs attorney learned about leading himself, and other people, by talking to firefighters, teachers, recovering addicts, cancer survivors, and world champions, and finding out they were all working on the same thing.