08/11/2026
Perfect! Do what is most helpful to the team.
Everyone I've ever raced with at the world-class level has an ego. Me included. The winners are just the ones who can leave it at the starting line when the team needs them to.
I learned that from a horse.
At Primal Quest, Utah, the organizers gave every team one horse for the first leg: a 65-mile jeep trail run, then another 35 miles of off-road desert.
Every other team loaded their packs onto the horse and started running alongside it.
My teammates had a different idea. Put two packs and ME on the horse.
It was common knowledge that I wasn’t my team’s fastest runner. But I'd come into my own by day three or four and sometimes get stronger as the race went on.
So they made the call: I'd ride the first 65 miles and save my strength for everything after.
I was mortified.
There I was, trotting down the trail like an extra in an old Western while everyone from the top-five teams ran alongside me.
"How's the view up there, John Wayne?" one competitor smirked as she ran by.
At the first water stop, a race crew member asked if the Queen of Sheba was having a good time.
I wanted to crawl under a rock. I rode the horse anyway.
Then the horses went away, and my job started. I blazed through the desert leg, kept my teammates fed and hydrated, and held my own through 600 more miles of biking, hiking, kayaking and rope work. On day six, we edged out the Canadian team for third place. Neck and neck, at the line.
Before the start, other teams had talked about putting someone on their horse. Nobody would swallow their pride and do it.
The way I see it, a podium finish lasts forever. And it was the perfect bandage for my momentarily bruised ego.
So that's how I learned it. The most successful people I've ever raced with had zero problem looking silly for a while if it got the whole team home first.
P.S. That story's from my New York Times bestselling book, along with the other seven elements that got our team to many podiums and two World Championships. You can grab a copy here: https://www.balboapress.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/863683-make-winning-inevitable
