I Just Ran 100K — My First Double Ultra-Marathon. Here’s What It Taught Me About Business, Grit, and Going Beyond Your Limits.

Yesterday, I did something I never thought I would do.

I ran 100 kilometres—my first-ever double ultra-marathon.

Let me put that in context. One hundred kilometres. On foot. In a single day.

It was, without question, one of the toughest days of my life. There were moments out on that route where everything in me was screaming to stop. Where the gap between what I wanted to do and what my body was telling me felt like a canyon.

But I finished. And in doing so, I broke through one of the biggest personal goals I have ever set.

And the morning after — legs aching, mind still processing what happened — I found myself thinking not just about running, but about what the experience revealed about performance, mindset, and the parallels between endurance sport and high performance in business.

So I want to share what I learned. Not just as a runner, but as a coach who has spent over 25 years helping sales professionals, teams, and leaders push beyond the limits they set for themselves.

It starts before you ever take the first step.

When I first considered running 100K, the idea felt completely out of reach. I had run ultras before — but 100 kilometres is a different animal entirely. It is far beyond anything I had attempted.

And here is the thing about goals that feel out of reach: most people never even start because the distance between where they are and where they want to be convinces them it is impossible.

The first breakthrough is always mental. It is deciding that the goal is worth pursuing — even when you cannot yet see how you will achieve it.

In business, this is exactly how it works. The sales targets that feel impossible. The new market you want to break into. The leadership role you are not sure you are ready for—the business you want to build from scratch.

None of it starts with a perfect plan. It starts with a decision — a genuine, committed decision — to pursue it anyway.

You cannot think your way through 100K. You have to break it down.

Once I committed to the goal, I had to get ruthlessly specific about what I actually wanted and how I would get there.

100 kilometres sounds overwhelming as a single number. So I stopped thinking about it as one thing.

I thought about it as segments. Checkpoints. Small wins along the way. The next kilometre. The next drink station. The next hour.

High-performance athletes know this intuitively. So do great sales professionals. You do not close a €500,000 deal in one conversation. You earn it step by step — one conversation, one discovery question, one follow-up, one proposal at a time.

When people get overwhelmed by a big target — whether it is a sales number, a business goal, or a personal challenge — it is almost always because they are staring at the whole mountain instead of focusing on the next step.

Break it down. Make it manageable. Keep moving.

Real grit reveals itself when everything hurts, and quitting would be easy

Around the 70-kilometre mark, something happened that I had been warned about but could not fully prepare for.

Everything hurt. My legs were heavy. My mind was looking for reasons to stop. And stopping — genuinely resting — would have felt incredible in that moment.

This is where I discovered what grit actually means. Not motivation. Not enthusiasm. Not the feeling you get at the start of something new. Grit is what shows up when the feeling is gone, when the excitement has faded, and when continuing requires you to dig into something deeper than desire.

In sales, every professional hits this point. It is the end of a difficult quarter where you are behind target. It is the three-week stretch where every prospect has gone quiet. This is the deal you were confident you had, but it fell through.

This is the moment that separates high-performing individuals from everyone else. Not talent. Not a strategy. Not even skill.

It is the decision to keep going.

The professionals I work with who reach the highest levels of performance are not the ones who avoid these moments — they are the ones who have learned how to move through them.

Age is not a barrier. Your beliefs about age are.

I am going to say something that might surprise you.

Running 100 kilometres was not the most remarkable thing about yesterday. What I found more powerful was the realisation of what becomes possible when you stop using age as an excuse.

We live in a culture that quietly tells people they are past their peak. That their best years are behind them. That ambition beyond a certain age is somehow unrealistic.

I do not believe that. Not for a single second.

When you genuinely commit to something — when you train for it, prepare for it, and refuse to let a number on a birthday card define what you are capable of — you discover that you are far more powerful than you thought.

I see this in the coaching room regularly. Salespeople in their 40s and 50s who are the most coachable, the most determined, and the most impressive performers I have worked with — because they bring experience, emotional intelligence, and a deep hunger to prove something to themselves.

Your best performance may still be ahead of you. But only if you decide that it is.

What this means for your business and career

Everything I experienced on that 100-kilometre route has a direct parallel to high performance in sales and leadership.

Commitment before clarity. You rarely have the full picture before you begin. The goal has to come first. The plan follows. Act before you feel fully ready.

Focus is your competitive advantage. There were hundreds of thoughts that wanted my attention during that run — pain, doubt, distance, fatigue. The only way through was to bring my focus back, again and again, to the next step. In sales and leadership, distraction is the enemy of performance. The ability to focus — deeply, consistently, on what actually matters — is what separates top performers from average ones.

Your environment shapes your performance. I did not run 100K alone. I had people alongside me, coaches who prepared me, and a community that held me accountable. In business, the people around you — your team, your coach, your peers — have an enormous impact on what you achieve. Invest in that environment deliberately.

The body follows the mind. At the 80-kilometre mark, the decision to continue was entirely mental. My legs were doing what my mind told them to do. The same is true in sales. Confidence, resilience, and belief in yourself are not soft skills — they are performance skills that directly determine your results.

The lesson I carry into every coaching session

When I work with sales professionals, teams, and leaders, the biggest breakthroughs rarely come from learning a new technique or perfecting a pitch.

They come from a shift in what someone believes is possible for them.

From “I cannot hit that target” to “what would I need to do differently?”

From “I am not the kind of person who does that” to “what if I am?”

Yesterday’s run reminded me that we are all capable of far more than we currently believe. Not because it is easy. Not because we feel ready. But because when we commit — truly commit — and we are willing to do the work, to push through the discomfort, and to keep going even when every part of us wants to stop — extraordinary things happen.

Anyone can do this. Not just in sport. In sales. In leadership. In life.

But only if you decide to buy into it.

And once you do, the limits you thought were fixed start to move.

Ready to push beyond your limits in sales and leadership?

If you are a sales professional, team leader, or business owner who is ready to break through a performance plateau — whether that is a revenue target, a mindset block, or a leadership challenge — I would love to have a conversation.

I offer a free 30-minute discovery call to explore what is possible for you and your team.

Book your free call at jasoncooper.io