Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Most of us treat fear like a stop sign. Today’s guest, Mike Reynolds, has spent 15 years treating it like a compass instead, chasing whatever scares him most, one race at a time. But this conversation isn’t really about the races. It’s about what happened when a government affairs attorney sat across from firefighters executives, teachers, recovering addicts, cancer survivors, blind athletes, world champions, and weekend warriors finishing just before the cutoff and found that they were all working on the same thing. What he found is that endurance sports are rarely about the finish line. They become a vehicle for becoming someone different. Built through thousands of small choices. So we’re going to discuss why fear works better as a compass than a stop sign and what 15 years of testing that idea has taught Mike about leadership.
Bernie Borges [00:01:08]:
What 50+ interviews with extraordinary people have revealed about what makes a story worth telling. How lessons learned mile by mile have shown up in specific moments at work and at home, why Mike believes leadership is built through thousands of small choices no one else sees, and why the leadership styles of 2 ultra runners, one intense and one easygoing, are both right. Mike, welcome to the Life Fulfilled Podcast.
Mike Reynold [00:01:50]:
Thanks, Bernie. Good to be with you.
Bernie Borges [00:01:52]:
It’s great to have you. I am looking forward to our conversation. Let me introduce you to my listener. You are— vocationally, you are a partner at McGuire Woods LLP and senior vice president at McGuire Woods Consulting in Richmond, Virginia, where you help clients navigate government and public affairs matters across industries including healthcare, energy, and financial services. Now, Mike, after having hip surgery in your 30s, you were told that you’d be unable to run for years, but you returned to endurance sports at age 40, and you have since completed obstacle course races, including a full marathon and ultra marathons up to— and I can’t believe I’m saying this— 50 miles. We’ll hear about that. And along the way, you’ve interviewed more than 50 endurance athletes and everyday competitors, including Lance Armstrong and Olympic gold medalist Kristian Blummenfelt, for a book that you are currently writing. So in this conversation, Mike, I want to get into why you treat fear as a compass rather than a stop sign, and how the ordinary people whose stories have stayed with you And now there are lessons from the trail and how they’ve shown up in specific moments, both in your career and at home.
Bernie Borges [00:03:16]:
And so, Mike, I think the place to start for us to give, give this whole story, our conversation context, is your backstory, starting with that hip surgery and that impact that it had on you. So why don’t we start there? Sure.
Mike Reynold [00:03:32]:
Well, it’s great to be with you, Bernie, and, uh, Listen to your podcast and really, really enjoy the platform and what you’re, what you’re trying to do. In 2013, I was pushing a stroller around the local high school track, showing off for my 2 daughters who were toddlers at the time. And as I was pushing the stroller around the track trying to race against them, I pulled up and felt this pain in my hip, and I really panicked. Because the following week I was running a marathon in Virginia Beach. It turns out that I had multiple tears in my labrum in my hip and had to, had to ultimately have surgery. When I came out after the post-op and talked to the doctor, he looked at me and said, your running career is over. I hope you enjoyed it. You’re going to do something else now for the rest of your life.
Mike Reynold [00:04:26]:
No turkey trots, fun runs, 5Ks, no Running with your children, none of that. You need to stop or else you’re risking having a hip replacement before you turn 40. I ended up waiting a couple of years, putting on some weight, not exercising as much as I should. And then I was on the back porch of a friend’s house during COVID I just turned 40 and I hadn’t had hip replacement. And so at this point, we were kind of talking and we said, you know, we could do one of those obstacle races. What if we just ran it slowly? What if we went out together? He also had some health challenges, and so we decided to just run at our own pace, the party pace, I guess, and we were able to go out and have a great time. Spent more time on the course than most people had, but it was a neat way for us to be together and have some fun. Next thing you know, we recruited some other people, and we had a bigger group to go the next time, the next time.
Mike Reynold [00:05:26]:
I still was able to stretch and do okay. And that led me to kind of think, well, if I could go at my own pace and run my race, not somebody else’s, what sort of other adventures would be out there? And ultimately, I was able to do a 50-mile race. It was called Man Against Horse, running against people on horseback.
Bernie Borges [00:05:45]:
Time out, Mike. Time out. You say that so nonchalantly. 50 miles?
Mike Reynold [00:05:53]:
So Instagram has a way of capturing an algorithm to get people who are looking at different things. And as I was looking for the next great interesting challenge, I found this website where they were talking about a bar bet between a cowboy and another gentleman in Arizona about 40 years ago. And they said, over the course of a long period of distance, I’ll bet you a runner on foot could beat a rider on horseback. And so, they ran this race called Man Against Horse, and it’s been happening for a number of years. And if you complete this race, which I did, you’ll get a belt buckle. And that was the trigger for me. I wanted a belt buckle.
Bernie Borges [00:06:41]:
Okay. And at this point, you’re about what age?
Mike Reynold [00:06:45]:
I was 43 at the time.
Bernie Borges [00:06:48]:
You knew exactly what age. Okay. All right. And so, when you ran that specific race, the 50-mile race, you had already run some— was it marathons or Ironmans?
Mike Reynold [00:07:00]:
I had, at that point, completed a half Ironman, the 70.3 in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I fell on my bike. I had purchased a bike from a A dental student here in the area, here in Richmond. Bought the bike for about $300. I was on the course competing with people who had bikes that were probably the value of cars. But as an amateur athlete, I went out there, gave it my all. I missed the bike cutoff time, but I ended up finishing the race with about 2 minutes before they had the cutoff. I had a bloody knee.
Mike Reynold [00:07:34]:
I had hit my— fallen and hit my shoulder and my in my head at one point, but I was able to keep going and somehow was able to finish. Also did another event called 29029, where you climb, you hike the height of Mount Everest over a 36-hour period. And, they had folks as young as teenagers all the way up to people in their 70s. You hike to the top of Mount Whistler, gondola to the bottom, hike up again, and you hike the height of Mount Everest.
Bernie Borges [00:08:04]:
Wow.
Mike Reynold [00:08:05]:
And that was a mental challenge as well. But I’ve been able to do some really cool things just, and along the way, really learned some neat lessons.
Bernie Borges [00:08:14]:
Well, that’s exactly where I wanna go next because we could spend this entire conversation hearing about the details of all those races, which alone is very impressive and even conversation-worthy. But for my listener on the Life Fulfilled Podcast, I wanna really connect this to fulfillment. I wanna connect this to Leadership and your point about you learned a few lessons along the way. So what’s the first one? I mean, I opened up by saying that you, you, you don’t treat fear as something to shy away from. You treat it as a compass. So maybe we can start there. Most AI initiatives don’t fail because of the technology. They fail because leaders don’t plan the human side.
Bernie Borges [00:09:00]:
There’s a fear tax and a meaning gap That’s draining your team’s performance right now, and most leaders don’t even know it. Our Human Dividend assessment measures both across 4 dimensions: reducing fear, creating clarity, preserving meaning, and building adaptability. It’s a structured diagnostic that you take online, alone or with your team. It includes a debrief call A custom report that’s built around your team and specific next actions that turn insight into ROI for your business and your people. To learn more about the Human Dividend Assessment, visit the link in the show notes.
Mike Reynold [00:09:46]:
So, I’ve done a lot of things that are a little bit nutty, a little bit crazy, but found a community of people who are out there trying to push their bodies, And more than anything, push their minds further than they thought they could go. A couple of years ago, I was giving a lecture at Virginia Military Institute, where I took ROTC about 20 years ago. And one of the slides that I had said, you’re not thinking big enough. And I thought about that as I’m teaching these young cadets, many of whom were going in the military in one branch or another. And I thought about— Am I living up to the very thing that I’m talking about? And so, I tried to expand my horizons and think about interesting and unique challenges that would push me mentally, physically, require preparation and discipline, require proper nutrition, and working with people in a community who had a shared mindset of, I’m going to do something that’s going to require a lot, months of preparation and discipline. And as I learned that, I was scared. These were big. If I told friends about it, if I told my family, I could fail.
Mike Reynold [00:11:00]:
I could have a health incident. But over time, I learned with the right preparation and the right mentality, you could achieve things that I didn’t think were possible. I didn’t even know these challenges existed. And I was able to take those lessons back to My work, volunteering as a Little League coach for my daughter’s softball team, my home life, and be an example to others, and also really feel alive. There’s something about being outside, that runner’s high. It’s real, but it only comes after you tackle some inner demons and some doubts and discouragement and setbacks.
Bernie Borges [00:11:44]:
Well, it sounds to me like you’re describing fulfillment, because I say that fulfillment is the emotion that we experience when we achieve something and/or do something with purpose. And clearly, all these different races and competitions that, that you’ve experienced are achievements, to say the least. That’s an understatement. Um, tell, tell me about Some of the people you met along the way? Because I know you shared that with me. A lot of the people that enter these races are like you, meaning, you know, ordinary people in doing life. You know, they’re not like professional runners. Right? So what, what, what did you learn there?
Mike Reynold [00:12:28]:
I think for a lot of folks, particularly once you’ve kinda hit your 40s and, and into your 50s, you’ve gotten certain elements of your life figured out, right? You’re on a career path. You find meaning in that. Many folks have families, and they find meaning and purpose in that. But then at the same time, as you kind of figure those things out, you need new challenges, new interesting problems to solve, new mountains to climb, I guess. And I found these folks seek things out, right? Some people like to smoke meats and do barbecues, and other people take up new and interesting hobbies, play the guitar or do something else, join a men’s softball league. For me, it was endurance sports. And I like the fact instead of doing a 10K, I could be on a course for a longer period of time, suffer longer, but at the same time be around people who we could move a lot slower. And so when you’re out there in those miles for long periods of time, you build relationships and friendships.
Mike Reynold [00:13:32]:
I completed an Ironman last year, Ironman Texas in 2025, and that was a 2.4-mile swim. You biked for 112 miles, and then you ran a marathon. And I started the marathon about 5 o’clock in the evening, and it was, I don’t know, 94 degrees in Houston, Texas, very swampy, very hot. And as I was out there, I thought to myself, well, what’s the next challenge going to be? Is it going to be another Ironman? Is it going to be a double Ironman? And then, I love to read, I love to write, never done anything like this. And I said, what if I were to write a book dedicated to people like me who were just thinking about ways they could push themselves in new and different ways, working with their doctors, working with a coach? But what if I reached out to some of the folks that I’ve met along this journey and get their stories too? Because I’m not unique, I’m not special. In fact, I’m quite slow. I’m not a very fast athlete. But I don’t quit.
Mike Reynold [00:14:33]:
And in this last year or so, I’ve interviewed almost 55 athletes. I’ve been able to meet Lance Armstrong. I have spoken with an Olympic gold medalist, Kristian Blummenfelt. And then, I’ve talked to people like Ginny, who’s a small business owner in Virginia, a woman who’s an oil executive in Houston, Texas, living with multiple sclerosis. A man who calls his mother before races out in Iowa and has run across the state of Iowa. And the common thing I’ve learned about all these folks who have their own stories and their own interesting identities and pasts, they’re all looking to build community with people who are positive, encouraging, not willing to talk politics, not willing to talk about religion, or family trauma or things like that, but they want to be a part of a community that supports doing hard things, the discipline required on the front end, and then celebrating these wins of epic human achievement.
Bernie Borges [00:15:39]:
That’s awesome, Mike. There’s something that you said during our previous conversation. You said that this is a community that celebrates the last finisher as much as the first. Can you elaborate on that?
Mike Reynold [00:15:54]:
So, I did a race with my cousin. I ended up not finishing. It was 4 degrees outside and the wind chill was negative something. It was on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And a couple— my cousin was able to finish this year. I had to pull out for an injury. But my cousin, a couple years ago, became the DFL on this race, the dead last person. He didn’t realize when he got that trophy what that award meant for a couple of years or a couple of months until after the fact.
Mike Reynold [00:16:27]:
But routinely, if you look at these ultra races, whether it’s a 50-miler, 100-miler, Cocodona 250, some of those races, they always celebrate the DFL runner. And this is someone with enough grit to be out on the course long after The professionals finish long after most of the age groupers, and we come out and support people not because of how fast they did it, but because of how far they went. And I think there’s something to be said. There’s no shame, there’s no laughing, there’s no judgment. People are just happy that these folks wouldn’t quit. And I have this picture of a lion next to me here on my desk, and it says, my only talent is that I just don’t quit. And those lessons can be applicable to anything outside of this, particularly at work when you were, you were out there asked by clients to help them on very important challenges. And you have to be creative, think differently and uniquely.
Mike Reynold [00:17:26]:
And sometimes you’re going to face setbacks either due to your own judgments and actions or due to the universe. And you have to figure out ways to not quit And to solve problems. And this is just one forum for people like me to get out there and do it.
Bernie Borges [00:17:44]:
So, Mike, you just shared an example of what this looks like in leadership in the workplace. What about outside the workplace? Comment on that because I always say that leadership is influence. It’s not necessarily a title. It’s not necessarily people that report to you and you’re leading people. Leadership is influence. And there’s so many opportunities for us. You mentioned Little League coaching as an example. So many opportunities outside the workplace for us to be in leadership roles where we have influence.
Bernie Borges [00:18:14]:
So, how have some of these lessons also contributed to your life outside of work?
Mike Reynold [00:18:20]:
I’ll tell you the story of 2 ultra runners that I’ve interviewed. Andy Glaze is a fire chief, a battalion fire chief out in Southern California. And since 2020, he has run 100 miles every week, every single week. That’s essentially more than 14 miles a day is what he’s averaging. And he leads young firefighters, older firefighters. And when I asked him about leadership, he said he has to change his style. His motto is, smile or you’re doing it wrong. And he’s the happy warrior.
Mike Reynold [00:18:57]:
He’s always out there. In fact, right now, today, he’s running a 100-mile race in Montana and he’s documenting it. Smile or you’re doing it wrong. Find joy in the miles. Well, he speaks very differently to himself. He’s a lot more harsh. Some of his inner dialogue and his language is harder because he’s pushing himself, and that works well. But for some of the folks that he leads in their 20s and early 30s, If he were to go in and correct them on everything, be a hard-charging alpha, they would rebel because he knows that he needs to talk to people of different generations and different backgrounds differently.
Mike Reynold [00:19:38]:
And so, he finds what works with each individual person, and that requires him to know who they are and find what buttons to push, what ways and strategies to move folks. And how to be kind and set the example. Now, I’ll contrast that with another ultra runner named Harvey Lewis. Harvey’s a 50-year-old government teacher from Ohio. He’s won the Badwater 135 race, which he’ll be running next week. That’s in Death Valley, California. Harvey recently ran from New York City to Washington, D.C. as part of the Chasing Democracy 250.
Mike Reynold [00:20:15]:
So, he ran 250 miles from New York To Washington, D.C., carrying the American flag. I ran about 12 miles with them from the Philadelphia airport around there to Wilmington, Delaware. And I asked Harvey the same question. I said, what makes a leader? How do you demonstrate leadership? Do you have to talk to people differently who are younger than you, as these high school students are? What do you see leadership? And he shrugged his head. This is all while we were running, by the way. And he shrugged his head and he said, oh, Mike, anybody can be a leader. You just have to show up and show people that you care. And he mentioned the fact that he was doing this run not just to run for himself, but to do something larger than himself.
Mike Reynold [00:20:58]:
He stopped along the way and saw these route markers of civil rights icons, Revolutionary War historical spots, 9/11 Memorial, all of these different things. And he was raising awareness about our history, the complex history that we have as a country. And he also said he was able to stop and see a bunch of preschoolers out there. And he talked to them about their favorite spirit animals and turtles and American history and running and doing something hard. And he said, see, I just saw these kids and I had to help teach them. Anybody can be a leader at any time if you just look around and get out there and want to serve others and be kind to others. And so, I would say that those 2 lessons kind of show an empathy for others, an ability to not just say, look at me, look at all the hard things I’m doing, but to use your own story, your own path as an example for others, and then use it to find ways to relate well to other people so that you can accomplish something great.
Bernie Borges [00:22:02]:
Great stories, Mike. Thank you for sharing them. And the way that I would really summarize them in a sentence or two is that they both, in both cases, they know how to have a positive influence on the people that they interact with. They do it with their unique style, but the bottom line is they’re having a positive influence. So, thank you for sharing that.
Mike Reynold [00:22:26]:
Thank you.
Bernie Borges [00:22:27]:
Mike, as we record this conversation, you are still writing your book, so it’s not out for publication in this moment. But Mike, podcasts are around forever. So at some point in time in the future, someone’s going to listen to this and your book is going to be available. So tell us what you can tell us about it. Tell us a little bit about what the reader can expect, given some of the story that you shared with us today.
Mike Reynold [00:22:54]:
Sure. So I share some of my journey about my family and my kids. how I got into ultra running just kind of by accident. I talk about signing up for the race, crossing the Rubicon. What does that mean? If you sign up for one of these races, you pull out your credit card and you have to click submit. And for these distances, I’m training right now for a 100-mile race. I did a full Ironman. I didn’t know if I was going to finish.
Mike Reynold [00:23:26]:
But there was some kernel, some belief somewhere, some spark that said, you know what, I might, I’d like to try. Talk about prioritization and the fact that it’s not always how you do things, but what you do every day. I talked to this orthopedic surgeon. He has a very busy, demanding job repairing shoulders and hips and knees. And he said that his family comes first, his work comes second, and training for these sorts of endurance sports comes third. And it’s a distant third. If I don’t have my priorities right, it doesn’t matter how efficiently I do things. And that needs to be told more.
Mike Reynold [00:24:08]:
I can’t do my crazy races if I don’t have things buttoned up at home, if I’m not spending time with my wife, my kids, my dogs. If I am not taking care of myself and resting and prioritizing my own health and then, you know, the training. And people at the office, while they are supportive of me and like to hear that I went out and raced against people on horseback, they don’t care if I’m not doing the work that I’m hired to do. And so, prioritization is key. And I also go into faith and how for some of these individuals, I interviewed a state Supreme Court justice. who had just finished the Boston Marathon about 10 minutes before the bombing and what that was like and how his faith helped him work through that. A woman who is Muslim who did not finish Ironman Texas and came back the next year with a fire in her and how she prayed and was able to get herself through. I talk about people who have had addiction and recovery.
Mike Reynold [00:25:14]:
One gentleman blew his own life up. He started anew and began to think about his grandfather, who was a World War II hero, and his newborn son, and what sort of example and legacy he wanted to lead. Talk about people facing doubt and fear. My failures, my DNFs, my did not finishes, and how I was able to mentally overcome those things. And find meaning and purpose, but then also realizing that I just needed to shake them off and go on to the next because nobody cares. No one’s paying attention. They’re all on their phones anyway. So, just get out and live your life.
Mike Reynold [00:25:52]:
You don’t have to ask for permission. Just get some agency. Then, I talk about suffering as well, what that’s like. I heard from Lance Armstrong and he said, I can suffer better than anybody else. I’m the best at suffering. against world-class athletes. And I had someone else who said, I’m just out here to have fun. That’s cool that you interviewed Lance, but I’m just out here to have fun.
Mike Reynold [00:26:18]:
What is the tension and the meaning in those things? So that’s what I’m exploring.
Bernie Borges [00:26:24]:
That’s awesome. Very inspiring, Mike. And any— are you willing to say when you think the book is going to be available?
Mike Reynold [00:26:32]:
I’m hopefully looking at sometime in mid to late 2027.
Bernie Borges [00:26:37]:
Okay, terrific. And do you have a title for it or is that still in progress?
Mike Reynold [00:26:42]:
Still in progress, but we’re looking at something along the lines of Joy in the Miles.
Bernie Borges [00:26:47]:
Okay, terrific. Well, I encourage my listener to connect with you so that they can stay in touch with the timing of the availability of that book. I know I’m going to want to read it when it’s available, so certainly I’m glad to share it. And, I mean, this has been such an inspiring conversation, not just because of all the racing that you’ve done, which alone for someone, you know, well over the age— well, I don’t know, I shouldn’t say well, but over the age of 40 to do, to be doing that kind of competition is really impressive. But I think even more impressive, Mike, is just the impact that it’s had on you and the connections you’ve been able to make. And the impact that it’s had on your ability to lead. And again, leadership is influence. It’s not always about leading people in a formal sense, but that impact has been really, really significant.
Bernie Borges [00:27:39]:
So, thank you, Mike. And I want to invite you to just share your contact information and how can people stay connected to you so that they learn about the availability of the book.
Mike Reynold [00:27:50]:
Sure. So, you can find me on LinkedIn @MikeGrenold. And then also on Instagram, @emre32.
Bernie Borges [00:27:57]:
Fantastic. Well, my listener knows, Mike, that both of those will be linked up in the show notes for this episode. And again, I just want to thank you for joining me for this episode of the Life Fulfilled Podcast. Your story is very inspiring, and I know that it’s going to touch a lot of people.
Mike Reynold [00:28:13]:
Thank you for having me. This was a lot of fun.
