I was 37 years old and had just received my report card from the doctor after my first top-to-bottom physical. I’d earned a solid D—a decade of habitual social drinking, poor sleep, and bad eating habits had finally caught up with me. The reality was that I had built and led a successful IT company, but wasn’t able to lead myself and my own wellbeing. I was a public success but a private failure.

Then COVID happened.

As with many others, because of restrictions, the timing was right to embrace the outdoors and focus on emerging a wiser, stronger, and healthier version of myself. I proceeded to challenge myself, very publicly, to run 100km a month for 6 months. As a “non-runner,” this meant attempting a 5km run almost everyday. Unlike many things in my life, I managed to stick with it and completed the challenge on a snowy November evening. There was no fanfare or reward for my accomplishment—except for the sweet relish of the fact that I had really stuck it out and completed something that required time and steady perseverance towards the end goal. With the weight of the pandemic as my companion, I couldn’t help but see my running challenge as a metaphor for my business and leadership journey through the crisis. Despite adversity, one needs to keep moving forward.

With a newfound fitness base, I didn’t put running on a shelf and return to my old ways. I continued to build on this fitness capacity I had started, adding volume and consistency. One of the proudest moments was the validation from my doctor—the one who had given me a big fat D: my cholesterol, enzymes, waist circumference and BMI were all back “in the green.” “Honestly, one of the biggest health turnarounds I have ever seen from a patient.”

In August 2022, I took on a new challenge—running 7 marathons in 7 consecutive days for charity. Still in my relative infancy of running, having only started a couple years previously, I embarked on a fundraising challenge with great trepidation and uncertainty about the results. With the support of friends, family, and community, I completed the challenge and was able to raise over $20k for a local non-profit in the process. It was a huge success and further motivated me to continue onward.

This journey has led me to longer and greater challenges: I’ve since tackled over a dozen “Ultra Run” events (anything over 42.2km) and made my life’s mission about doing really hard stuff to inspire positive change in others. The creation of Climbing for Change is a progression of that mission and offers a larger platform to allow others to do something difficult and create positive impact in the world around them.

Scaling the “summit” at this event is—hopefully—only the beginning for all attendees as we realize how much capacity for change we all possess and the privilege we have that we get to do hard things.

To hear more about Luke’s running journey, listen to his talk with the folks at TheExplore84 podcast.