Run Your Race: The Power of Consistency, Faith, and Mental Strength

Host: David Charlton, Sports Psychologist and Mental Toughness Practitioner

Guest: Pierce Showe, Podcast Host, Endurance Athlete, World Record Holder, Running Coach

The Psychology of Flow and Losing Track of Time

David Charlton: Yeah, when you say you don’t know what the science behind it is, I know things I’ve read about flow and being in the zone. When you’re a really young kid playing with little cars or various different things—I suppose gaming is a big thing these days—they’re just immersed in it, aren’t they? Immersed in the activity and time is just non-existent, really. That’s the same for any athlete, I guess, when they’re playing their best and they’re in that zone. So yeah, there’s my little analogy there.

I’m curious—you’ve got a tagline, which is “Run Your Race.” Share a little bit more about that.

Run Your Race: The Philosophy of Self-Comparison – Avoiding the Comparison Trap

Pierce Showe: Yeah, so “Run Your Race” for me is all about running your own race and focusing on being better than who you were yesterday. Because I think, especially in the era of social media, we see all these people running different races, running different times. Honestly, a lot of times I coach athletes and they judge their times 90% of the time based on what they see other people doing on social media or on Strava because they’re comparing.

I look at what other people are doing from a standpoint of, “That’s cool.” I look at their numbers and it’s interesting. But I think if we’re placing our value on that comparison and we’re getting too caught up in their race, then it’s not going to help us.

A Life Philosophy, Not Just Running

That’s what I focus on just focus on doing what you’ve been called to do. “Run Your Race” is for running, but it’s a life philosophy for me as well. I took a very unconventional path. I was going to university, studying accounting, going to go into the corporate world, and then I felt God direct me a different way. So I followed that, and life’s been incredible. I’ve been able to experience so many more things than I could ever imagine, meet cool people, and all of that.

My whole mission behind “Run Your Race” is to encourage people: Don’t focus on what other people are doing. Focus on what you’ve been called to do and what you’re up to. Run your own race. Because also, we know that if you’re in four-hour marathon shape, it’s not going to be good if you try to do the same pace strategy as someone going for three hours. It’s just not going to work for you. You may stick with them for the first one or two miles, but you’re going to be gassed after. That’s why it’s important to take your own approach and don’t judge yourself based on what someone else is doing.

The Danger of Pre-Race Comparison

David Charlton: Yeah, most definitely. Social media in that respect, Strava and things—it does make it very difficult for some people, especially what I’ve noticed when I’ve been working with athletes in different sports. When they’ve got a big event coming up, often their emotions can get heightened, so they become more nervous, more anxious, more worried. Then the danger is you act on that emotion and you start comparing, you start looking at things even more, and then you catastrophize, and it just becomes a big cycle.

Often my advice is: Look, if you’re going to compare, do it, but just don’t do it in the last 72 hours or so before a race because you’re going to make matters an awful lot worse. I’m just interested in your thoughts around that.

Pierce Showe: Yeah, no, 100%. You don’t want to compare because everyone’s on a different trajectory, and you don’t know what they’ve been through or what they’ve gone through. People just meeting me don’t know I’ve been running for seven years. They don’t know I played lacrosse before that. They don’t know how many hours I’ve put into training.

Understanding Different Starting Points

I’ll get runners and even athletes that I coach who are frustrated because the progress is taking a little bit slower than they expected. It’s like, “Dude, you just started running last year. I’ve been at this for seven years and probably 10-plus years because of all the running I was doing in lacrosse.” You’re doing yourself a disservice judging yourself based on me because physically you probably can’t progress even faster to some extent.

Even I tell myself that in things that I feel like I’m not that great at or want to improve in. It’s like, “Dude, just pause, slow down. You’re doing great. Focus on how you’re getting better from yesterday.” If you’re truly giving everything you’ve got and doing all the things, eventually you will get there. It’s just sometimes a matter of time.

Goal Setting: The Framework for Consistent Progress

David Charlton: Yeah, almost definitely. Going back to the whole mental toughness theme—we touched on confidence earlier. Another aspect would be around the commitment side, and something that seems pretty evident in yourself, given the list of achievements and accomplishments along the way, is the goal setting side. It sounds like—correct me if I’m wrong—you complete a race, you’ve achieved something, it builds your confidence up, and then you talk a lot about pushing yourself and challenging yourself and what’s next. So I guess you’re a big goal setter?

Goals Give You Direction

Pierce Showe: Yeah, you’ve got to have goals because goals give you direction. I think that’s one of the biggest things and why I’ve been able to run the races that I’ve been able to do—I set the next goal, sometimes even a little bit before the goal I’m about to reach. I kind of know in the back of my mind what I’m going to do next, or after I finish a race, within the next month, I’m figuring out what am I going to do next. It doesn’t have to be right after, but it has to be at some point.

What that does is it gives me a framework to look through the lens of how I spend my time and what I’m dedicating my effort and energy to. Think about this, David: If you’re always working towards a specific running goal—yes, granted, you take a little bit of time after a race to recover and so on and so forth—but if you’re constantly working towards something, then you don’t have time to sit around on the couch and gain weight or get out of shape or do whatever people do, because you’re putting in the work for the next thing.

Don’t Get in Shape—Stay in Shape

I always say, and it’s kind of joking but it’s true: You don’t have to get in shape if you stay in shape. Especially with the end of the year coming around in January, there are a lot of people focused on getting in shape. Well, you wouldn’t have to get in shape if you stayed in shape. It doesn’t mean you have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger or you’ve got to have a six-pack, but that’s a big mindset and motto that I live by.

David Charlton: I guess for you, it’s a habit ultimately keeping in shape, exercising, running. It’s just something you do. Whereas, yeah, to some people, the thought of it probably stops them at the end of the day.

The Power of Going All In

The Cost of Being Half In, Half Out

Pierce Showe: For sure, and it stopped me at first. One of the things I like to tell people is: You would think that for me, it’d be very hard to be this way now. “How do you keep up the running? How do you do this? How do you do that?” But I actually find it’s easier to err on the side of extremely consistent, really dedicated. It’s easier for me to be all in than half one foot in, one foot out.

I’ll share this because I went to college at USC in California, and I kind of was back and forth between being really disciplined and motivated and running a lot, and then also going out on the weekends, staying up way too late, going to parties, going to clubs, all that kind of stuff. I would Monday through Thursday be really good—disciplined, sleep well, get up early, all this kind of stuff. But then Friday, Saturday would roll around. I’d go out, I’d drink too much, I’d make stupid decisions. Then I’d sleep in till 11 a.m., eat like garbage, and feel like garbage.

The Boulder Analogy

Then I’d try to get back on the train on Monday, and I could get on it sometimes, but it would take a lot of energy to start it up. It’s just like if you have a huge boulder or if you’re trying to push a big car—it’s harder to get that initial momentum than to keep pushing it. Because once the car starts moving, if it’s in neutral, it will start going, but getting it going takes a lot of energy.

That’s the thing behind motivation and staying motivated and all of that. I am way more consistent than I was before, years ago now, because I don’t have those huge seasons of taking time off. It’s actually easier for me to stay disciplined and stay in it and dialed in than when I was teetering back and forth.

David Charlton: Yeah, I can equate that to my ice bath that I’ve got. If you’re in there every day, then yeah, you just do it. You know what you’re going to go through the next time, but it’s not a big deal. But then if you have a week or a fortnight off for whatever reason, then it can be damn hard to get back in.

Pierce Showe: Literally. It’s so true. That’s such a great example.

Faith and Mental Toughness: A Spiritual Foundation

David Charlton: So you’ve got your faith as well. I’m intrigued to pick up on faith and mental toughness and, I suppose, the spiritual grounding side to it all. How does that all work for yourself in terms of your motivators?

Gifts, Talents, and Purpose

Pierce Showe: Yeah, so I really believe that God’s placed certain gifts, talents, and abilities in me, and it’s my job to make the most of them. That’s one aspect. But two is—faith is everything to me. I’ll tell you what running is like without it.

The Emptiness of Achievement Without Identity

I got into these races, I started doing 100-mile races, and think about a big achievement that you have. You work towards it for so long, you go after it, you achieve it, and it’s great. It’s amazing. It’s an awesome time. But then usually about two days later, three days later, you start to come down and there starts to be this emptiness of like, “My gosh, I chased that goal and I accomplished it, but what now? What next?”

I think, especially for ultra running, you have this day where you run a big race and you’ve been training for it for months, and everyone’s cheering you on, and you finish it, and you have this finish line experience—it’s amazing. But then you go back to your normal life and the day’s over. Your body’s also broken and trying to get back. That can a lot of times lead to a post-race depression because you have this big day and then you go back to your regular life and it’s not as good. You just had this mountaintop experience.

Shifting Identity from Achievement to God

I experienced that a couple of times, and I realized that I was placing my value in my achievement rather than who God says I was in my relationship with the Lord. Ever since I started to shift that around and not place my identity in running, that’s changed a lot. Because running is just a component of me. It’s not all who I am. If I’m not careful and get my identity tied up in running, then I’m nothing without running. When I can’t run anymore or whatever—if, God forbid, something happened—then I’m lost. I’m done because that’s where I’d placed all my identity.

That’s why I think you see a lot of these athletes or businessmen who sell a company—you see them not really know what to do after that because their identity is in the thing and not in God.

Tapping Into Spiritual Strength

In every race I pray before it, and God really shows up and protects me and gives me strength. I really believe with my faith, it’s like when I get to the end of myself, God really shows up and carries me, and there’s no way that I would be able to do these races without the spiritual strength that I have. Because it’s like tapping into an energy reserve fuel tank. I don’t even know how to describe it, but when I get to the end of myself, something happens. I pray and someone shows up with something, or the right person motivates me, or whatever. It’s one of the wildest things, but really cool. Yeah, it’s been awesome.

Freedom Through Proper Identity

David Charlton: Yeah, that’s fascinating. I guess when you think about the person whose identity is wrapped around their sport and maybe their ego takes over—their body language, their nervous system—I can imagine there’s quite a bit of physical pent-up tension in there in comparison to what you’re talking about.

Pierce Showe: Yeah, for sure. It makes you a lot more free when your identity is not in the thing.

David Charlton: Yeah. As you say, when you think about professional athletes when they come down to retirement, or entrepreneurs out there who are 100% all in on their businesses, it is a really, really tough shift to pivot and make a switch there.

Mental Toughness Across Generations

David Charlton: I suppose the younger generation—you’re a different generation to me. How would you say that your generation sees mental toughness?

A Different Perspective at 24

Pierce Showe: That’s really good. It’s interesting you asked this question because I’m in a younger generation—I’m 24 years old—but I definitely identify with people older than me a lot. I would probably have much more engaging conversations with you than the average 24-year-old, just because I think about different things and I’m focused on different things.

The Rising Tide of Mental Toughness

I think there’s a rising tide of people pushing themselves and really getting into it and getting into marathons. And not just that you have to run a marathon to be tough, but just to push themselves. There are definitely pockets of people. But you’ve got to think about it, David, too—doing extraordinary things by definition means you’re extraordinary.

Having mental toughness is doing the difficult thing. People in our nature are geared towards comfort. So I think there’s always going to be a majority of people who take the easy road. But I definitely do think that Gen Z is not just—everyone in Gen Z isn’t just someone who is trying to avoid it and stick to comfort and whatnot. I think there is an awesome population of people who are pushing themselves, trying to discover what they’re capable of, and really redefining the limits of what’s possible.

David Charlton: Yeah, no, you hit on something there where you talk about getting comfortable. Regardless of whether you’re your age or my age, whatever generation, it is very natural to be comfortable. But I guess it all comes back to what we were saying a little bit earlier, doesn’t it, about just keep setting goals and raising the bar and, as you say, just challenge yourself along the way. Yeah, it is a vital component.

The Guinness World Record: 153 Consecutive Half Marathons

David Charlton: Do you want to, just before we look to wrap things up, tell the listeners a little bit about the world record side of things?

Breaking the Record

Pierce Showe: Yeah, for sure. From March this year, 2025, to August, I ran a half marathon every single day on the treadmill. It was a Guinness World Record. I broke the record—it was currently 125 days, I believe, and I did 153. So I beat it by about a month.

The Strict Requirements

It was pretty crazy. I did a half marathon every day on a treadmill. I had to have two witnesses there every single day, also full video recording. If I got lapsed, I had to restart. Same thing if I got off the treadmill—I had to restart. So yeah, it was a lot. It was great, though. I learned a lot about discipline. The biggest thing I learned about was consistency, to be able to do that every single day. It was challenging, but it was amazing at the same time.

The Mission: Raising Health Awareness

I did it to really raise awareness for food in the United States. I’m not sure if you’d be familiar with this, but essentially the food system is kind of backwards in the sense that there’s so much processed food and all this that’s leading to really a health crisis. I don’t know if you’ve eaten in the US, but it’s pretty common for people in the US to eat in Europe or other places and feel a lot better than when we eat actually here, even if you’re eating healthy, just with the quality of food. We don’t have a lot of the regulations that they do in Europe to prevent a lot of these processed foods and fast food companies from putting all these different ingredients in our food. Basically, I wanted to raise awareness for that and get people moving. So that’s what I did.

David Charlton: Good on you. Fantastic cause. I’ve been in the States a few times, and one of the things I’ve noticed is more about the portion sizes. Generally, when you’re going out there, they can be crazy. I know in the UK a lot of companies have picked up on that, and we see a lot of it now as well. So what was the biggest challenge, would you say, when you did this 153-day challenge?

The Daily Grind: Showing Up No Matter What

The Challenge of Consistency

Pierce Showe: The biggest challenge for me was doing it every single day. It was very challenging to do it every single day, regardless of what happens. I couldn’t travel. I went through different holidays running on the treadmill. Yeah, whether I felt like it or not. It really taught me about the power of showing up even when you don’t feel like it.

For the races, yeah, I have to perform in my training, but I can have a day where something comes up—I get sick or injured or whatever—and take a little bit of time off. Then I just got to be ready for race day. Versus this—race day’s every day. You can’t afford something to happen. It really got me to dial in all the different areas of my life to make sure I was able to do it. And then, yeah, it really strengthened my mindset.

Technical Setbacks and Mental Resilience

There were days where I had to completely restart the run and I had to run a full marathon in the day and then run the half the next day because of a camera issue where I forgot to delete the storage on my camera, so it stopped midway through because the storage ran out. Or I had to go to the bathroom 11 miles into the 13-mile run. Those days were tough. I think I had to redo the camera at least three times and same thing with the bathroom—had to restart three times because of it. So yeah, it was so challenging, but we got through it. And again, it’s just proof that you’re capable of way more than you think.

Strategic Scheduling

David Charlton: Did you ever run on an evening, late on an evening, and then into the early morning of the next day just to buy yourself some extra time for recovery at all?

Pierce Showe: Yeah. Usually, though, my time was always in the morning. How I tangibly did it was I blocked out my calendar every day, 8 to 11, to take care of this. I’d run from 8:30 to 10:30. I had witnesses scheduled every day for about that time. So if something happened and I had to run late that day because I had to redo it, I already had my witnesses set up for the next day, and so I had to go early. So yeah, it was tough.

David Charlton: The reason I asked that question was because I interviewed someone a few years ago who’d run every single day for about seven years at that point. They would sometimes do that where they’d run at about 11 p.m. and then through to the next day. And then it just bought them a 36-hour, nearly 40-hour window for recovery there.

Pierce Showe: That’s smart. Yeah, that’s really smart. But for me, I was doing it at a specific gym, so I had to work on their hours as well.

Three Key Takeaways

David Charlton: We’ll leave it at that, just about. First thing though, before we do wrap up, I’d like you to share three key takeaways to the listeners. What are the three big messages they can take away?

1. Pursue Your Faith

Pierce Showe: Yeah, perfect. Number one: I always encourage you to pursue your faith, whatever that looks like. There’s a great verse in the Bible that says, “Draw near to God and he’ll draw near to you.” Faith is so important and so crucial in my life, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything without it. I’m not telling you what to believe, but telling you that it’s a very essential part of life.

2. You’re Capable of Way More Than You Think

Second thing is that you’re capable of way more than you think. I never would have imagined running a half marathon every single day seven years ago, but as I’ve stayed disciplined, as I’ve stayed consistent, I was able to do something that I never thought was possible. So yeah, that’s number two.

3. Run Your Race—Don’t Compare Your Chapter 1 to Someone Else’s Chapter 20

Number three: That whole message of “Run Your Race.” Don’t worry about what someone else is doing. If you want to be great in a certain field, yes, study the top performers. Yes, see what they’re doing, what their training looks like, all of that. But it’s so demoralizing when you focus on basing your chapter one or two on their chapter 20 or 25.

For instance, someone basing their running potential based on their times versus my times—well, it’s not fair because I’ve been running for so many years compared to you if you’re just new getting into it. So focus on your own journey, focus on being better than you were yesterday, and you’ll end up accomplishing way more than you expected.

Connect with Pierce

David Charlton: Yeah, great advice that is. Where can the listeners and the viewers find you? If they wanted to ask you a question or get in touch, where should they go?

Pierce Showe: Yeah, for sure. I’m primarily active on Instagram. Shoot me a message, DM there, and yeah, it’d be awesome to connect. Always love connecting. Shoot me a message with your biggest takeaway and then any questions that you have.

David Charlton: Fabulous. Well, look, I’ve loved the conversation, been good fun, and yeah, some great stories. So yeah, a big thank you there, Pierce.

Pierce Showe: Yeah, awesome. Thanks so much, David. And thank you so much for listening to us.

Summary: Key Lessons from Pierce Showe

Run Your Race Philosophy:

• Focus on being better than you were yesterday, not on others’ achievements
• Avoid the comparison trap, especially in the 72 hours before a big event
• Everyone’s on a different trajectory with different starting points

Goal Setting as a Lifestyle:

• Goals provide direction and framework for daily decisions
• Don’t have to get in shape if you stay in shape
• Going all-in is easier than being half-committed

The Power of Faith:

• Identity rooted in faith prevents post-achievement emptiness
• Spiritual strength provides an extra reserve when you reach your physical limits
• Running is a component of who you are, not your entire identity

Daily Discipline:

• Showing up every day, even when you don’t feel like it, builds extraordinary results
• Consistency is easier to maintain than stopping and restarting
• You’re capable of way more than you think

Mental Toughness for the Next Generation:

• Extraordinary results require doing extraordinary things
• There’s a rising tide of young people pushing their limits
• Comfort is natural, but challenge is where growth happens

For more episodes of Demystifying Mental Toughness, visit our podcast page.