Getting After It

172 - 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before Running 2,100 Miles

• Brett Rossell • Season 6 • Episode 172

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I didn’t set out to run 2,100 miles to learn life lessons.

I ran them chasing consistency, discipline, and progress—and along the way, those miles taught me more than I expected.

In this episode, I share 7 things I wish I knew before running 2,100 miles—lessons about discipline, identity, recovery, patience, and how progress actually works over the long term.

This isn’t just a running episode. It’s about becoming someone you can trust.

We talk about:

  • Why motivation fails without structure
  • How easy, boring work creates real progress
  • Why identity is earned through action, not intention
  • The role of recovery in longevity (in training and life)
  • Why progress is usually invisible before it’s obvious
  • The difference between discipline and stubbornness
  • Why there’s no finish line for becoming who you’re capable of being

As Marcus Aurelius wrote: “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”

Whether you’re a runner, an endurance athlete, or someone trying to live with more discipline and consistency, this episode is for you.

Keep Getting After It.

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I hope today’s episode sparked something within you to pursue your dreams and unlock your true potential. If you found value in it, consider sharing it with someone who might need that same push.

Getting After It is for those who. want to silence their self-doubt. Refuse to be owned by comfort. Understand their limits are man-made and breakable. We live in a time of constant comparison. Social media drowns us in highlight reels and overnight success stories. But what most people don’t see is the grit behind it all. The reps. The quiet mornings. The sacrifices. The failures.

You are just getting started. Keep Getting After It. 

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SPEAKER_00:

Guys, you know what time it is. It's time for the Getin' After a podcast. Welcome back to the show, my friends. Very excited to talk to you today. I have been thinking a lot about how I can make all the episodes I'm doing throughout 2026 kind of play on top of each other. And if you listen to the last episode, it was all about how identity is earned and not necessarily chosen. And I feel like that's a very important lesson, especially as we go into a new year and people are setting new year's resolution goals, and really everyone's trying to focus on just getting a little bit better than they were in 2025, which I think is great. That's how life should go. You know, you pass through a year, you do a reflection, see what you can improve, how you want to get better, and ultimately make decisions to facilitate that. So uh along with the last episode regarding an identity, we're gonna be talking about something that I'm very proud of. Last year in 2025, I ran 2100 miles um throughout the year, which something I'm I'm proud of. Like that was hard. It took a lot of time, it took a lot of effort. But something that surprised me is I learned a lot of lessons. Um, not just about running specifically, but um, you know, I didn't just wake up one day and say, hey, you know what would help me grow? Repeated physical suffering. That's uh that's a great idea. Maybe I'll just go out and try and run 2100 miles. I really I set out to run that goal. My original goal was 2,000 miles for the year, but I set out to run that goal because I wanted to get better myself. I wanted to see what I was capable of, and I wanted to test my own discipline, my consistency, and ultimately my limits, because I had never ran that many miles in in a given year. Um and somewhere along the way, those miles they started to teach me. And it was not just just about running. Like I said, this is something, one theme that we're gonna be having for 2026 is I'm gonna be using running a lot as a metaphor for life. It's something I relate to. I know it's a lot of uh what other endurance athletes believe in and what they preach, uh, but there's a lot that you can take from the lessons that you learn from things like this and apply it to your life. So I I learned things about patience, I learned things about discipline and and how progress actually works in my own life. Um and if I'm honest, there are things that I wish I would have learned earlier. Uh because I I think it would have made me wiser, it would have made me a better runner. And today I wanted to sit down and share seven things I wish I knew before setting out to run those 2100 miles. If you run, this should help you. But if you don't, this still applies in many ways. Because this, like I said, is not just about running. I would say it's becoming it's about becoming someone who you can trust. Someone where, you know, you say you're gonna commit to something and you're going to do all you can to make it happen, and you believe that. That's a lot of my old experience with setting goals and trying to accomplish great things. Is I I never really trusted myself a lot of the times because I would set out these pretty drastic goals for myself and didn't have a game plan on how I was gonna go after it and and make it happen. And a lot of the times I fell out of those habits and I lost that trust in myself. Uh, not significantly, because here I am talking about it, but I mean it gets cloudy when you lose that trust in yourself, when you forget who you're trying to become, it makes growth challenging. When goals, when you want to set new goals and you want to accomplish new things, you question whether or not it's something you can even handle. So I hope these seven tips help in some kind of way, whether it be your running career, or if it's just other things in life. You want to be a better husband, you want to be uh a better wife, or you want to be better at work, you want to be more efficient there, you want to start a business. I hope all these things help you. So let's kick it off. Number one is motivation is useless without structure. Like, I used to believe that motivation was the engine that was going to push me across the finish line. I thought that without motivation, I could not go out and accomplish these things, right? I mean, you hear people all the time like, let's get motivated, let's go push ourselves. But what does that really mean? Like, how do you stay motivated in times where you don't want to do the thing? And um, I used to believe also that if I was inspired enough, if I was disciplined enough and fired up, um, everything would kind of take care of itself. And sometimes, yes, motivation did show up, but usually at like the worst possible time. It's like when I'm scrolling and it's 9 47 p.m. And I see a video of David Goggins out running, and he's like, You better get out there and run. You're not running, I am. And I'm like, oh man, I should probably go and run. But it's 9 47 p.m., so I'm just gonna go to bed instead. Um But I've learned through my own experiences that motive motivation is more of an emotional response, and for me, structure helps eliminate some of that decision fatigue and ultimately your choices. Um, motivation comes and goes, but structure is always there whether you feel like it or not. And there got to a point where you know I had this lofty goal of running 2,000 miles for the year, and I stopped asking myself, do I feel like running today? And the question then became, when am I gonna run today? What's my day look like? Where can I fit it in? Once I did that, everything changed. And again, the same applies to life. Like, when do you train? When do you think? When do you rest? When do you work? Structure removes that negotiation. And negotiation is where most people lose on their goals, especially. Like, I'm gonna do an episode in February uh where I kind of double down on New Year's resolutions. I if you guys are out there setting goals for the new year, I want to help provide you tips to stick to them because there's gonna be times when it gets hard. January's a great month because motivation is high. You know, everyone wants the new year new me. But that doesn't last long. That might last a couple weeks, could last a few days, depending on what your goals are. But if you have a structure put in place on when you're gonna train, when you're gonna do the thing, when you're gonna sit down and study, it makes it a little bit easier. So the actual takeaway for that is fix when you do the thing before worrying about how well you do it. So make sure that you understand when whatever habit you're trying to develop or whatever task you're trying to finish, make sure there's time in your day allocated to it. You have to have that. And yes, if I only ran when I felt motivated, I would be very great at sitting on the couch. I would not be a runner, and I would not have ran 2100 miles. So that's what I would say is is probably the number one tip I can give you is do not rely on motivation. Build a structure and maintain that structure throughout the year. Now, um, this one, it's gonna sound like it's a lot about running, but I promise you it's not. And it's easy miles matter more than the hard ones. The reason I say this is because early on I thought that progress meant suffering. Like it meant the hard workouts, it meant exhaustion, that feeling like you really earned that workout, right? Your body is is trembling at the end and you're exhausted, you're on the floor in a in a sweat angel, you know. Um, but most of the miles that actually moved the needle for me, they were the boring ones. They were zone two, easy, very unsexy, and ultimately quiet. I wasn't out there pushing myself um, you know, in zone four all the time like I was for my uh sub three marathon. And those miles to me did not feel impressive. They didn't make great stories. Like I wasn't going home and telling Allie, guess guess how fast I ran my miles today, or or uh guess what I did at the gym today. No, I I came home and I said, hey, I ran another five miles and lifted, or the next day, hey, I ran 10 miles and um I'm feeling great. But those days stacked up on each other, and I've learned that the hard days test you. They test you in ways, they test your your mental capacity to deal with the issue, they test your physical capacity to be able to stay in the game and push yourself in those ways. Uh emotionally, they'll test you. But for me, the easy days built me. So the easy the hard days test you, and the easy days will build you. Life works that same exact way. People tend to chase intensity when they should chase sustainability instead. Like you don't need to win all the time. It's it's fun to win, it feels good to win, it feels good to do your best all the time. I learned very early on that that leads to burnout. And when you encounter burnout when you're trying to pursue goals, it can be very uh discouraging because here you are with this this big goal ahead of you, you have all these expectations set for you, and you just don't have it in you to keep showing up and trying. Um you know it's a it's a thing that happens a lot when you're trying to maintain your own pride. When you want to not not let the ego um kind of take control, you have to re rein that in. It's it's uh it's bad to let the ego control your brain. Like you you can't let that happen. It's it's gonna lead to rash decisions, it's gonna lead to burnout, it's going to lead to um you questioning whether or not you can even do the thing. So I would say to stop trying to prove something every day. Instead, start trying to repeat something every day. There's a big a big distinguishing factor there. Like if you're trying to prove something every day, you really are pushing your limits, which is great. And I think that's good to kind of throw in the mix every now and then. But if you're really trying to grow, then you need to repeat the same actions over and over and over again. Those 2100 miles, a lot of them, like I said, were unsexy. They were zone two, easy miles. But without them, I would not have been able to obtain that goal of 2100. So something to think about there. But I'm a believer that consistency beats intensity, especially when no one's watching. When there's no one cheering you on, you're able to have a little bit more sustainable actions because you're more consistent, because you're not trying to overdo it every single day, you're just trying to repeat the same cycle. Um step number or tip number three that I would have for you. And this goes a lot along with the last episode that I recorded about identity, and this is identity changes after action and not before. This one's very important to me because I didn't feel like a runner become before I came one, and I didn't wake up confident, I didn't feel disciplined, I didn't feel like someone who had it all figured out, and I still don't have it all figured out, but the key difference is I acted first. I showed up when I was tired, when I was unsure, and when I was very imperfect, especially in the beginning. My running form was all over the place, I hadn't dialed in my nutrition, and a lot of my runs were unperfect. Um, that led to some injuries, that led to uh inconsistent training, and it led to a little bit of burnout, but I was very dedicated to making that happen. So I tried my best to make sure I was. I was doing the things that I said I was going to do. Um, and that meant I had to show up tired, and I I had to make sure that even if it was imperfect, I was still trying to do my best. And eventually my behavior changed how I saw myself, because that's the part that a lot of people miss is identity is not a decision. I heard this metaphor where someone was talking about identity and they said it's more of a receipt. You know, it's it's like you know, you hear all the time, like, bring the receipts, let's hear it. Where's the evidence? And that's a lot of how identity works for me, because if you have that evidence of that you are who you say you are, then that identity has become you. You've earned it. And you don't become disciplined and then act disciplined, you act disciplined and then you eventually believe that you are. This is true for confidence, it's true for mental toughness, for faith, for leadership, and for consistency. And all those things require you to act first in the beginning and repeat them over time until you actually start believing to believe that you are a confident person or you are a consistent person. Those results will come, but act first. And the question I would have you ask yourself here is what would the disciplined version of me do today? And then sit with that thought for a minute and really think about it and then do that and don't wait to feel ready. Number four, you can't outrun poor recovery. This is uh This one is a little close to home because I I basically injured myself. Um if you're listening to this in the past few weeks, you understand I'm going through quadricept tendinitis and it sucks. Um yesterday on my trail run with my brother, uh, actually had to cut it short because my knee was flaring up and it hurt really bad. And I didn't want to risk making it even worse. So there are some things, and this is again, I'm learning all these. I'm learning these tips, I'm I'm practicing them. Uh, but recovery is one piece that I always overlooked. I thought it was a suggestion. You know, it's it's sleep when you can, or stretch if you remember it, and fuel eventually throughout the day. You know, if you miss a few, who cares? And it turns out your body your body is the one that will tell you whether or not you are recovered enough and whether you are taking care of it, whether you're treating it with respect that the way that you should. Um you ignore recovery long enough and it collects payment with interest. It comes back as a tax collector and says, Hey, pay up. If you don't pay up, you're going to jail, which in this metaphor is you're going on the couch injured. This again applies beyond running. Burnout doesn't happen overnight, it happens quietly through small neglects. Like, I've learned through the past few weeks that rest is not weakness. In a sense, it is maintenance. And recovery is not quitting, it's staying in the long game, which should be the goal for every single one of us. We want to stay in the long game so we can accomplish great things throughout our lives. And that only comes if we're listening to our bodies, if we are taking care of them, if we're respecting them. Like you can't just expect it to go out. If you've never ran an ultra marathon and all you do is run, run, run and never stop, something's gonna break. Like you don't have the systems built up, you don't have the the body built up yet to get to that point. But it comes through taking care of it, to listening to your body. And I've been doing that a lot more these past few weeks, is is really listening to my body, and that's why I cut my run short yesterday. Uh but I will do things like I'll ice my knee, I will stretch a lot. I've just been trying to get in the routine of having recovery be a priority in my in my actual physical fitness routine. And it's made quite the difference. Like my body is already thanking me for doing these things, but also like eating more, eating more protein, eating foods that will aid in recovery. It seems so easy. It seems way too easy to even have to worry about. But the what I've learned is that the easy things work, and boring still works, even though it sucks to do sometimes, the boring actions are what lead to that long-term success and that longevity. But what I would do is is if you're struggling with this, schedule recovery like you do with your own training and protect your sleep, make sure you're you're fueling enough, and also protect your mind. Like make sure that you are spending time, not letting your your thoughts or your emotions get out of whack. Because when that happens, achieving goals, in my opinion, has it becomes very difficult because you don't know what to focus on. You don't know um if you can even handle the the load that you're you're trying to carry. It's difficult. If you don't plan rest, your body will plan it for you, and it won't ask you nicely, it will come with fire, just like with what happened to my knee. Like I didn't treat my body with respect as I probably should have, and my body let me know, and it sucks, but I'm getting better. The same thing can happen to you if you're not planning to recover, if you're not taking time to stay off of work, to spend time with your family, to kind of get a uh a moment where you're decompressing and detaching from the things that are keeping you down. Recovery is crucial for long-term success. Tip number five This is a hard one for me, but progress is mostly invisible. At least that's that's been my own experience. Because most days do not feel special. There's usually no breakthroughs, there's no real dramatic moments, it's just you showing up again and again. And then one day, something clicked in me where you know my pace started feeling a little bit easier. The distance that I was pushing felt normal, and progress didn't announce itself in some dramatic way, it it it revealed itself to me. And it didn't happen overnight, it took weeks and months, but I know that's frustrating for people who want feedback now. The thing is that growth compounds quietly. Feeling stuck does not mean that you're not growing. It often means growth is happening below the surface and you just can't see it. That happens a lot when people want to lose weight, is they expect it to happen very quickly, and it can be a long, frustrating journey, but it's not until months later that they see those results. That's kind of how running works, it's kind of how life works, it's how your job works. A lot of the times you just feel like you're going through the motions. You might be trying to do your best, but it might feel like you're going through the motions. And it's not until you take a step back and recognize that, oh man, I have grown. I've gotten a lot better at writing, or I've gotten a lot better at sales, or uh spending time with my family, opening up and connecting with my spouse. It's through the small consistent actions. What I would tell you to do is measure trends and not days. Like if you see yourself doing well some weeks, take note of that. If you see yourself Not really, you know, making progress for a few months. Just recognize and see if you are doing the actions that you need to do each and every day. Stay patient when nothing is happening. When nothing exciting is happening. Which is hard to do. That's why I said I struggle with this one a lot because I am someone who wants things fast. I want those results very quickly. And I shouldn't expect that of myself because that's not how progress works. It hasn't for me. And I don't think anyone else would say that that's how it actually works. You don't become an overnight success overnight. You become an overnight success through showing up when you don't want to and being so consistent that no one can deny that you are who you say you are. That's usually when it's working, is the quiet days. Tip number six that I have is discipline without flexibility becomes stubbornness. And there's a difference between being disciplined and being rigid. I've learned that toughness without awareness can break people. It's broken me a few times. Like, I have pushed myself because I wanted to stick to some stupid plan I had, or I wanted to, you know, make sure I did some habit every single day for a certain amount of time that it became overwhelming. And that's when I started to question myself like, oh man, am I actually able to do this? I'm pushing myself very hard, but it seems like it's not moving the needle. Um and that can be so, like I said, discouraging. Sometimes the most disciplined thing you can do is adjust. Like sometimes you need to back off, you need to adapt, you need to train another day. And I've learned that wisdom is knowing when to push and when to pause. Those two things are very important because you can't be so rigid where let's take the example that you are um you're traveling for business, you're traveling for work, whatever it is, but you're someone who goes to the gym and works out first thing in the morning, uh, let's say it's 6 a.m. And the next day, you know, you're in uh you're in let's Chicago, whatever, and your boss says, Hey, we have a meeting at 6 a.m. I need you to be there. Uh, and you're pissed off because all of a sudden your training is interrupted, and then you feel like you've lost the entire day, and then you're going through the day pouting because you missed your workout and your boss is having you here when in reality you can adjust. You can still be that same disciplined person, but it might have to be after all your meetings. You might just have to adapt a little bit. You might have to move things around and fit it into your schedule in some way. Ask yourself, am I being disciplined or am I being stubborn? Stubborn. Because one of those builds longevity, and the other builds injury, both physical and emotional. So I don't want you to burn out. And if you're too rigid, in my experience, that has led to burnout many times. So learn from my mistakes so you don't have to. Do not be so rigid that you can't adapt when things don't go your way. Because life throws curveballs all the time, and you have to adapt when it happens. The last thing I'm going to tell you, tip number seven, is you're never done becoming someone. I used to think that one milestone would change everything for me. That would look like one race, a certain number I was trying to achieve, certain finish line. The truth is it never did. Great example is when I ran my sub-three marathon and I qualified for Boston. I thought once that happened, I was going to be known. It's so stupid. I was I thought I would be known, you know, in the running community, and and I thought I was achieving greatness, and that I didn't really have to work that hard anymore. But the truth is, I had to work harder because now I had something else to live up to. I was now uh a sub three marathoner, and I wanted to really make sure that I was able to continue pushing myself to become someone great. Um, you know, the cheers, the applause, all that, it wasn't there. You know, that one milestone that I hit, sub three, it did not change everything. It just changed a little bit of myself to recognize that there's a lot more work to do. Growth does not end. It never does. It only evolves. There's no arrival point when you finally become enough, or there's no finish line that you cross where all of a sudden you're done achieving, and all of a sudden you've you've accomplished everything in that in that um arena. We'll take running, for example. I've learned that there's only alignment. You know, showing up in ways that match who you are becoming. For me, this has become important for me to recognize, and it's it's really trying to fall in love with the process, letting your goals guide you, but not define you. You hear that all the time. Like, fall in love with the process, not the results. And I think the reason being is because if you fall in love with the results, that's what you're looking forward to every time. And I've learned in my own journey that results come at varied times. Like they're not all given to you. Um, sometimes you have to work hard for one and you get to that point and you can set the standards higher, and then work towards that. It's not gonna end. Getting after it, the whole podcast, the whole mantra, the whole community, it's about growing throughout life. And it's why I'm talking about running. Because one, I'm not the best runner in the world, two, I don't know if I ever will be, and three, I will try to become that. And that's through consistent work. It's through action, it's through showing up on those days where it is hard to do so. I don't know if I'll become the best, most likely not, realistically not. But the thing is, is I'm never going to stop achieving the best for myself. The best in the world, probably not me. The best for Brett, I will achieve. And it's only because I set the bar higher for myself once I hit those milestones. Like, I have not gotten to a point to where I feel like, you know, I've finally become enough to stop working towards goals. That is arrogant, and I don't believe that that's how how growth and how progression really works. It is slow and it is a lifelong process. It's what I say all the time in this podcast is that getting after it is a lifelong endeavor. And it truly is for this reason, because you're never going to arrive to a point to where it is enough and to where you can stop. If you're serious about growth, if you're serious about achievement, then that's something you must embody. You must fall in love with the process. Running 2100 miles didn't make me special at all. Like, I'm not trying to say that I'm great by running 2100 miles. I don't think that's the case. There's lots of people who do way more than me. But showing up consistently made me trust myself that I can do great things. And that's the real win here. You don't need to copy these miles, you don't need to try and run 2100 miles, and you don't need to run an ultra race. But you just need one thing that you'll consistently do, especially when nobody is watching. That's how you will earn your identity. That's how it's happened for me. And if I had these lessons at the beginning of my journey last year, I think I probably would have gone about the goals a little bit better. I would have protected my body better. I would have recognized that on the days where it feels like I'm not moving the needle, that it is moving just beneath the surface. That's how progress has worked for me. That's how growth has worked in my life. And a lot of the times this podcast is a great example of that too, because I expect these great results. You know, I'm I'm at 172 episodes. You're listening to this at 172. And I thought by now, you know, it would be bigger than it is. But I just set the bar higher for myself. I say, okay, well, it's not there yet. So what do I need to do to get it there? And I hope you can tell, but I'm I'm trying to refine my content for you all. I'm trying to make it a little bit more realistic for you, more actionable for you, and more helpful. At the end of the day, I want to provide value to you because you're giving me time, and I'm trying to give you something that you can take into your life and apply it in many different ways. That's what I want to do, and that's what I'm gonna aim to do, is I'm just gonna continue to refine this over time. I'm going to try and make the podcast grow. Because I want to reach more people, I want to help more people, and that's what the community is for. But really spend time thinking about these tips that I gave you and how you can incorporate them into your life, even if it's just a small one today, even if it's just, hey, let's not wait for motivation, let's just go do the thing. I don't think I'm a hundred percent prepared. Here's a spoiler, you never really will be, but I'm gonna go out and do it anyway. And if I can help you with that, I will consider this a success. I will be happy with that. And I really appreciate you all for listening, for giving me your time. That means so much because I know there's a lot out there that you could listen to and watch that you know might be more entertaining or might be interesting, but it means a lot that you are taking time to learn with me. So if it helped at all, please like, please rate the show. Um, that helps getting after it grow. And always love interacting with you all. So if you want to comment on any of my posts on Instagram, on uh TikTok, or on YouTube, um, that would be awesome because I love interacting with the community. And and let me know how you'll take some of these tips and apply them to your life, especially if it's not running. That's what I want to hear is is is this helpful to people who are not runners? Because I I believe it is, but I could be wrong. You know, I've been wrong about a lot of things. So I appreciate you guys for listening. And as always, my friends, keep getting after it.