Further Together

I normally write content based upon my personal experiences. At Centrepoint Alliance I work with some extraordinary people, both professionally and personally, so today I'm writing about the achievement of one of these people and what I learned from his experience.

In 2017 I took on the Kokoda Challenge. For 28 hours straight I hiked the 96km course through the Gold Coast hinterland. While I had trained hard for it, the combination of sleep deprivation, steep terrain, rain, mud and sheer physical exertion made it one of the most difficult mental and physical challenges I have ever taken on.

From that experience, the thought of running (not just walking) for 402km over 60 consecutive hours is almost incomprehensible to me. But that's just what my mate and work colleague, James Blanton has just achieved.

There is a lesson to be taken from his experience and spoiler alert, this isn't actually about running.

In August 2023 James competed in the Clint Eastwood Last One Standing ultra marathon. These events are both simple and terrifying.

The simplicity is that it's an elimination event. Every hour the contestants stand on the start line and when the whistle blows they complete a 6.7km trail run. If a contestant doesn't make it to the start point for the next whistle blow, then they're eliminated. As the contestants are eliminated, the last one standing on the start line is the winner.

The terrifying part is that when they start these races, the contestants have no idea how far they will be forced to run. The total time and distance is determined by the contestants willingness to give their all.

In this race, by the 38th hour it was down to James and Ryan Crawford at the starting line.

Ryan is a formidable opponent. He has previously qualified for the world Championship by running an incredible 502km over 75 hours. In April of 2023 James achieved his longest run ever of 275km in a similar event, losing to Ryan after 41 hours when he hit an ankle injury.

In the Clint Eastwood race, the last opponent dropped out in the 37th loop leaving the field again down to just James and Ryan at the starting line for the start of the 38th hour. James needed to win to qualify for the World Championships.

What happened next was both extraordinary and beautiful.

From that point on James and Ryan decided to run beside each other and to support each other until one of them could go no further. They went on to run for a further 22 hours over 147km until they both resigned at the 60th hour.

They were then declared joint winners after running an incredible 60 loops over 60 hours and covering 402km. James then qualified for the World Championships and in the process had ran a further 127km longer than his previous personal best distance.

Who knows how far they would have run if they had continued to compete against each other? Both are extraordinary athletes and such a contest would be decided by sheer determination. It would have come down to a mental game of who was willing to keep turning up to the start line despite the uncertainty of how much longer they would be forced to run for.

Not all of us are athletes, let alone ultra marathon runners. However the lesson I took from this tale is about how much more we can achieve when we support each other, even in competition.

We can all take pride in our individual achievements however there is also joy to be found in helping someone else to achieve their goals. Sometimes this can be a simple word of encouragement, at other times it may mean running alongside them or helping with the heavy lifting in order to get them over the line.

At home, at work and in every endeavour we have the opportunity to lift up the people around us. We can love when others achieve more than they thought that they are capable of.

I'm a self-described cheerleader. I don't have to be on the field to take pride and joy when my team wins. This is the perspective I encourage for anyone else who works with clients. Shift your focus from what you do for your clients to how you make them feel. If they feel as though you are always there to support them then you will both always win.

And finally to James Blanton , I'm both proud and humbled to know you.