Ultrarunning isn’t just a test of physical endurance it’s a crucible for emotional resilience. Whether you’re grinding up Hope Pass at Leadville, managing stomach issues at Foresthill at Western States, or riding the mental rollercoaster of the Moab 240, your ability to regulate emotions becomes as important as your training plan.  Research increasingly shows that how ultra runners manage their feelings mid-race can influence performance, recovery, and mental health. Here’s a look at the science and why an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based mindset can help.

Every endurance and mountain sport athlete knows the moment when their legs burn, their stomach churns, and their mind screams to stop.

We work arduously to rid ourselves of these distractions - of these annoying thoughts and feelings that push us towards quitting, but to no avail. They keeping coming back. We can push them down, ignore them, sometimes we try to ‘reframe’ them – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing - if it works. But like flies on shit, they keep coming back.

For those of you who were following along. I didn’t finish Lead Challenge. Once again, I was cut-off on the bike, this time at sixty-three miles. Then cut-off on the run a week later at…sixty-three miles.

While I felt ‘stronger’ on the bike I wasn’t faster. For three years in a row, I came into the forty-mile mark at the same exact time – literally, you can’t get closer - four hours and seven minutes exactly. The run was a bit different. I was significantly faster and stronger but fatigue from the races slowed me to a crawl once I was on the big climbs. A big sign that durability was a problem.