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We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
// Herman Melville
I hobbled along a quiet path leading into the small, historic market town of Keswick, a field on my right and a row of stone houses on my left leading me back to civilization. It was late in the evening, five and a half days after I had left the old Moot Hall to circle the English Lake District and run up all 214 Wainwright peaks.
Just before leaving Moot Hall. Photo: Jen Scotney
“You’ll have to slow down,” I told my eight year old son. He had joined me for the final stretch, and I was too exhausted to keep up with his eager pace. We were flanked by accomplished runners who had given up their day to come support me.
As I left the path and turned onto the final road I looked up to see a large crowd gathered in front of Moot Hall, waiting for my return. I squeezed one final burst of energy out of my battered body to run up the small hill and tortuous set of stairs to the finish.
Individual Ambition
When I started running again in 2013, it was entirely personal. I wanted to see what I could achieve as an individual. I wasn’t dependent on anyone else. I thought it was just me, my own limits, and what I put into it.
I quickly found that was not the case at all. The support I received from my family, other runners with shared “individual” ambitions, race staff and volunteers, a wealth of resources and online information; with all these things I pushed far beyond what I would have otherwise considered possible. I met my original goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon and ran it dressed as Link, setting a Guinness World Record for fastest marathon dressed as a videogame character. Then I kept going.
Collective Achievement
It wasn’t long until I had become part of both sides of the equation, supporting other runners on their journeys. In 2019 I moved to the UK and joined a community built around a rich history of supported efforts, with runners coming out to help others through arduous mountain challenges. I was the crazy, naïve American who came over and wanted to run three of the biggest mountain challenges in Wales, England, and Scotland… and ride my bike between them. People gladly came out to support me.
These efforts weren’t quid pro quo arrangements. I supported others on their runs, but people didn’t provide help with the expectation of something in return. Everyone was enriched by people of all experience levels pursuing big goals. We surpassed decades-old boundaries on existing challenges and created new ones entirely. Each new achievement was a rung on a ladder that carried us all higher.
A New Motivation
I had spent years convinced that running was an individual pursuit, focusing on intrinsic motivation and eschewing extrinsic rewards as the weaker driving force. But as I took on these massive supported efforts, with people coming out at all hours of the day in terrible conditions to help me get around the mountains, I realized there was a third, even greater type of motivation: reciprocal.
While intrinsic motivation is purely internal, and extrinsic is from external sources directed inward, reciprocal bounces between people, amplified each time. I couldn’t quit. People were waiting for me at two in the morning in the pouring rain. The greatest way I could show my appreciation was by putting in the effort to show their efforts were worthwhile. Likewise, the harder they saw me push the more motivated they were to help keep me going. There is something inside each of us that yearns to be a part of something bigger than any individual pursuit.
The Wainwrights record was my final big running challenge before I moved back to the US. Dozens of people had selflessly supported me out on those beautiful mountains. A crowd bigger than any I had personally seen in ultrarunning gathered to cheer me to the finish late at night, and together we added another layer to a rich history of those mountains and the communities in them.
Return to Moot Hall over 5 days later. Photo: Jen Scotney
As I venture 2,200 miles along the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, I’ll be pulled forward by not only my team, but by the people and the communities that make this trail what it is. I hope to be able to add another page to its history, pulling forward those who come after me.
John Kelly is attempting to break the record for the near 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail. This blog series coincides with weekly video episodes following his journey.
Watch the second video below:
John Kelly is the original architect and developer of Envelop Risk’s core technology, CyberTooth. After spending a few years in the UK building the team, he now lives back in the US with his family. John is also an internationally recognized ultra marathon runner, one of only three people to complete the Barkley Marathons more than once and the record holder on many well-known routes, including the Pennine Way. The thoughts and views in these posts are his own reflections from experiences as an accomplished athlete and entrepreneur, and do not necessarily reflect the views of others at Envelop Risk.
