[00:00] Steve Hobeck: If there is a limiting belief that I had, it was not knowing what I was capable of. Really not knowing that I could do something like that.

[00:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of Success for the Athletic Minded Man. Real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity, consistency, and focus in business and life.

[00:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. And today I bring you Steve Hobeck. Have you ever heard the quote, never meet your heroes? Well, the reason that quote exists is because they say don’t meet your heroes because it makes them out to be a real person. And you realize that they are not everything that you thought that they were.

[00:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, this is a little bit of that case for me. I got to work out and meet and be a workout partner with Steve Hobeck for years, and I know my hero. Yeah. And he’s a real person, a real human being. And he’s not some sort of person off in the distance who I don’t really know. He’s somebody who is in my life, in my circle, in my workout group, who’s an absolute inspiration to me.

[01:06] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for all those who know him, and the more we have people like that in our lives, it makes us realize, okay, I can do great things as well. And interestingly, I served in that role. For him a little bit and you’ll hear as you hear in some of these stories here today, and then he far surpassed me in the topic of the day here, which is his running and ultra running career, which is just absolutely, absolutely an incredible story.

[01:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So if you have anyone in your life and maybe it’s you, but if you have others in your life who want to raise their standard, want to Achieve a new level or maybe stuck. Maybe they’re stuck. Maybe they’re plateaued and that could be in their health and fitness. That could be in their career, in their business, or even in their marriage.

[01:50] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Forward this episode to them. Share this with them because Steve shares how he broke through and how we all can break through our own limiting beliefs and achieve dreams that we’ve never even dreamt. Here we go. My interview with my friend, Steve Hobeck. In F3 parlance, we call him Soundcheck, and my name’s Grappler, F3 is Fitness Fellowship and Faith, and we reference that a little bit here, and I’ve talked about it in different episodes, but, uh, here we go, my interview with Soundcheck, otherwise known as Grappler.

[02:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Take us back to that moment when your friend invited you to run that first 5K.

[02:28] Steve Hobeck: Okay. So that was probably, uh, I think it was around 2016 ish. Cause he was kind of a workout buddy. We were swimming a little bit together and we kind of hit the gym occasionally. And he had this idea about doing a 5K and both of us at that time were pretty Pretty overweight and I would say really overweight, but we’re kind of committed to at least holding each other accountable to doing something.

[02:56] Steve Hobeck: And, you know, after months and months, it really wasn’t working. It wasn’t doing much, but he’s invited me to, he said, Hey, let’s run a 5k. I got this buddy that actually is a race director for it. And, and he wanted to. And so I hesitantly agreed and said, okay, well, I’ll start training and trying to work my way up to a 5k.

[03:18] Steve Hobeck: And anyway, we both kind of agreed that our goal would be to break a 12 minute mile. Let me just say, I knew nothing about running at that point. I had actually never run a 5k. I’d never run except in high school, probably doing football. That was about it.

[03:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And you were how old at the time? I was 16.

[03:34] Steve Hobeck: I must’ve been about 56 at that point.

[03:39] Steve Hobeck: Anyway, so we basically did some basic training for it. We ran a little bit together. I did some running on my own and I remember going, barely making it a mile and thought I was going to die. And just really, it was probably one of the hardest physical things that I had ever done and trying to push past that one mile mark and just to continually run.

[04:01] Steve Hobeck: And it ended up where finally, after, I don’t know, quite a number of weeks, I was able to get to the, to the three mile mark and run continuously. And, uh, mostly it seemed like I was walking at that time, but anyway, so we did our 5k and we both came in together at 1159 pace. So, so we, we made our goal, which was.

[04:22] Steve Hobeck: You know, and of course, I look back on that now and that was like, I thought, you know, I never want to run that again. That was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done physically, that is. And so it was a nice feeling to actually accomplish something that, you know, you set out to do. And again, I had no reference point at all for what would be a good race, a good, So I thought, you know, okay, so we did okay.

[04:44] Steve Hobeck: And then I decided to, I mean, I didn’t really keep up running at that point or after that. And I think it was like one year later, he said, Hey, you want to do that again? And I was like, okay. So I’d kind of start training again for it. And, you know, we did the next one. And I think this time it was. You know, it was a goal to break like maybe an 11 minute.

[05:04] Steve Hobeck: And so anyway, so we did, I think I did maybe a 10 and a half minute pace at that time and again, still really, really hard. And then I just dropped it at that point. I didn’t, I was like, this is too hard. I’m not, I’m not running anymore. That was so not so great experience and certainly not motivating to keep going.

[05:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, right. So for the listener, you’re thinking like, Oh, this is the spark. Wow. He runs this 5k. He does it again the next year. He makes a better time. This is the spark that just sets off this journey. Nope. And so where did you pick it up? Like, where did things go from there? How did you go from that to ran two 5ks?

[05:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Didn’t do very well in those. Well, I should say didn’t do very well compared to where you’re at now. Those are just fine times for anybody, but there’s this gap between there and ultra marathon. What was the next step in the phase for you?

[05:56] Steve Hobeck: Well, I’ll tell you a little bit about my F3, the fitness fellowship and faith journey that I went on.

[06:01] Steve Hobeck: I had another friend and this was at 2018. Kept telling me about this F3 workout group where a bunch of men get together and exercise kind of a bootcamp style workout. And I was definitely not interested. And he kept hitting me up week after week and literally week after week. He says, man, you got to come to this thing.

[06:20] Steve Hobeck: You got to come to this thing. And so finally, I really honestly got tired of him asking me. I said, look, you’re my friend for you. I’m going to go. And that was like, I’ll do this for you, but I’ll do it once. And that’s it. And I just really, now at that time, I was 65 pounds heavier than I am right now. 65 pounds?

[06:40] Steve Hobeck: Wow. There was a whole journey where I went through of actually changing my diet and all this stuff and we can talk about that because that’s actually pretty significant to where I am now, but I Ended up coming with him. It was actually on December 1st 2018 was another one of those moments. It’s like I think I’m gonna die and it was a workout in Charlottesville It was some other guys and the first workout was It was like, uh, you warm up and then we ran up a hill and, and then we, we did what’s called these burp blocks and if you know what those are, it’s just like doing burpees.

[07:17] Steve Hobeck: Okay, so my first experience with F3 was running up a hill and doing burpees continuously around the block in the city. And it was pathetic.

[07:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I think I was at that workout, actually. I mean, I think we’ve done probably worse, but I think I was at that workout.

[07:33] Steve Hobeck: Yeah, well, that was a cheesy poof was leaving that one.

[07:36] Steve Hobeck: And anyway, so

[07:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: cheesy poop, by the way, for the listeners, as I mentioned in the intro, we all do have these silly names and cheesy poof is our. Our leader, also known as our Nantan here locally in Charlottesville. So anyway, great guy, but sorry, go ahead, Steve.

[07:50] Steve Hobeck: So anyway, so we were, you know, we were doing the burp blocks and we, I made it through the end of the workout and I was beat.

[07:56] Steve Hobeck: And I, I thought to myself, it’s like, okay, maybe this is something that I not only would benefit from, but I actually need at this point. And I had already, like I mentioned, I had changed my diet about three months before that I’d started dropping some weight and I really wanted to get in shape. And mostly, Because I saw my grandkids, it was just, I started to have grandkids and didn’t want to be a fat, lazy old man in my sixties or seventies, and not be able to play with them, or I wanted to at least be somewhat of an example of what a 60 or 70 year old guy could look like.

[08:28] Steve Hobeck: And I don’t know, it was just kind of a wake up call for me. So after that workout, I thought, you know, I really do need to. Maybe stick with this. And so I came back the next week and I don’t know, and uh, so week after week I would do this and I, I probably couldn’t tell it. I was so sore every, after every workout for like three days where I could hardly move.

[08:48] Steve Hobeck: You know, after probably about five or six weeks of doing this one, uh, I decided to add a second day and then, you know, I was less sore and was starting to see some of the benefits and was able to start doing some of the exercises anyway. I remember one day, uh, one of the guys there. He was joking around with me and he was giving me a hard time.

[09:06] Steve Hobeck: And he told me, he said, you know, I want to confess something to you. He said, you were one of those guys when you first showed up, he said, I actually bet some other guys that you would never show up again after the first workout. And he says, I can’t believe that you stuck with this. And so anyway, it was pretty cool, you know?

[09:20] Steve Hobeck: And, uh, it was one of those things like, you know, I was certainly the, uh, example of the guy that’s going to be a one and done at least on the surface. But there was something motivating me to, uh, again, Not to look at the short term, but really what is my ultimate goal here is just to be healthy. Honestly, it’s just to be healthy and be in good shape in my 60s and my 70s and beyond.

[09:41] Steve Hobeck: Um, and I knew that the two things that made the biggest difference was diet and exercise. And so I really had at that point committed to doing it. And anyway, and F3 was hugely instrumental in me getting to where I am today. And anyway, so I did that. I was committed to doing that for several years. Sort of the next milestone is I had started running a little bit during the workouts because that’s part of what the workouts do and incorporate some sort of jogging or generally not any, a lot of miles, but.

[10:12] Steve Hobeck: It’s just incorporated in the workout. So I decided, somebody was doing a, um, uh, sort of a pre workout run, where you just get about a mile in or so, and, uh, before the workout. And I decided to start doing that, and added a little bit of jogging into my, uh, workout. Anyway, so that was, I started to feel pretty good, even though I, you know, I did not like running, but I was like, okay, this is, this is another one of those components of the exercise.

[10:37] Steve Hobeck: I thought, okay, some cardio that would really help me out. And, um, anyway, so I did that for, for some time. And then at one point, one of the guys, I think it was Cheesy Poof, had mentioned something about doing a relay race. Forming an F3 team and wanted to know if I would be interested in being an alternate for that.

[10:56] Steve Hobeck: Here’s the old guy, you know, being an alternate for a running race who hasn’t really run at all. It has only done two 5Ks. I said, you know, I’m, well, I told him, I was like, I, no, it’s not for me. I’m not interested in doing it. He says, come on, man. I’ve seen you run. You can run. Okay. You can do this. And anyway, it was really encouraging and it sparked something in me.

[11:12] Steve Hobeck: And I actually said, okay, here’s the deal. I’ll train as if I’m going to run it. But I’m probably, you know, but I’m not really that interested in it. Well, so as the weeks went on, I started training a little more, adding a little more mileage. And ironically, it’s like one of the guys got hurt and I ended up having, being asked to actually join the team.

[11:33] Steve Hobeck: So I joined this team where it was a relay race with 12 guys go for 200, a little over 200 miles. Running continuously, trading in and out, you know, where the guys were, um, you know, one guy would do three miles, the next guy might do six miles or whatever. And so I was given probably the lowest cumulative miles on the team.

[11:52] Steve Hobeck: So I think a total of 11 miles is what I ended up running out of that 200 miles. But that experience was so profound for me. The camaraderie, just being able to do something with other guys that actually, oddly enough, we won the race. Being on a winning team, even though I was, I was the least of the, you know, capable guys in there, but being on that winning team was huge for me.

[12:16] Steve Hobeck: I’m not even sure I can explain why, and maybe it wasn’t the victory so much as it being part of something. Because certainly I didn’t contribute necessarily too much of the winning part of it, but I was a part of something that was truly satisfying and it motivated me because I had trained. I thought, you know, I’ve done, I’ve actually done a pretty good amount of training for this.

[12:38] Steve Hobeck: I think I’m just going to continue to keep this level of running up. And that’s when I really started enjoying running. It was the first time that I had ever experienced kind of a motivation to actually keep on going. That was my real motivator to get me to running was I had trained and then, you know, I didn’t want to lose what I had because I thought, okay, I built up to this point.

[12:58] Steve Hobeck: Why not maintain it? So that’s really what motivated me to get started.

[13:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And it’s interesting. And I’m going to point this out for the listeners. You had a friend invite you to the 5k and then same friend invited you to do the second 5k. And then you had another friend invite you to come out to F3 for the workouts.

[13:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Then you had another friend invite you to the race. And then when you’re in the race, it was the camaraderie, the friendships, the people that was exciting. You know, it was, it was pretty amazing. Fun for you, enjoyable. And then also being part of something. Part of a team, right? And that winning team, and then also setting the standard for your grandkids and also wanting to be mobile for your grandkids.

[13:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So like every single motivator that you mentioned involved other people. And so for the listener, I want you to think about what are the motivators for you? Maybe it’s not grandkids, or maybe it is grandkids or whatever it is. Like, what are the motivators? And also something we talk about in my coaching program is called the environment of excellence.

[13:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Who can you get around? Who are the people that if you’re in their orbit, they’re just going to raise the standard for you. And whether it’s in your fitness, whether it’s in your career, whether it’s in your relationship, relationships, whatever it is, like who are the people that you need to be around? And when you’re around them, they just hold you to a higher standard.

[14:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Whether, you know, directly or indirectly. Those are all key parts of Steve’s Growth and development and finding that motivation here, because he talked about it, like he ran the 5k, he’s like, well, I’m never going to do that again. That sucks. Right. I ran the first mile. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

[14:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And now here he is running ultra marathons and Boston marathon, et cetera. So whenever I ran the marathon in 2020, myself and Jeff, my neighbor goes by Dyfus in F3, we committed to running a marathon and then. COVID happened, the Pittsburgh marathon got shut down. So we stayed here in Charlottesville and made up our own marathon route.

[15:01] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And we ran it, Jeff and I ran it. And there were several guys like you, Steve, who jumped in and joined us. You ran eight miles with us that day. You committed, I think you started, you said, I’m going to run eight miles with you. You ended up running, I think, 13 with us that day.

[15:16] Steve Hobeck: 13. That’s the furthest I’ve ever run.

[15:19] Steve Hobeck: And again, I appreciate what you just said. It’s like, okay, these are guys that I know. These are guys that I want to hang with. And I decided, okay, well, I’m just going to run as long as I can. And, uh, anyway, I had never run 13 miles before. That that was possible. But, uh, yeah, so, you know, you two guys doing that, it was like, I can’t believe these guys are going to run a marathon.

[15:39] Steve Hobeck: This is crazy. How can they do that? It was motivating for me. It’s like, you know, and at that point I never actually had any thought that I would run a marathon or further than that. That was not even, it wasn’t even in my vocabulary at that point.

[15:51] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So this was another step, another bar, another hurdle that mentally you had cleared, and so at this point, and I want to get to the, you know, when did you sign up for your next first.

[16:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Marathon and Boston Marathon and Ultra, but looking back, were there limiting beliefs that you held that you were just blowing up? Whatever beliefs that were keeping you from doing this kind of work, this kind of running before were just false beliefs, right?

[16:18] Steve Hobeck: Yeah. Yeah. I hadn’t actually even thought about that in terms of running, but I, you know, now that I think about it, you know, just to run more than, Three miles was seemed impossible to me.

[16:27] Steve Hobeck: I mean, to run three miles was impossible to run more than that. It’s like, uh, you know, who are these people that are running the 10 miles, the marathons and any, I just had no grid for this whatsoever. So part of it, it was, I was ignorant. Didn’t have any concept that these things were possible, though. I, yeah, I certainly knew people were doing it, but I think for me, I don’t recall having a sense about just wanting to do more, I think for me, if there’s a limiting belief that I had, it was.

[16:55] Steve Hobeck: Not seeing that, not, not knowing what I was capable of, really not knowing that I could do something like that. And I guess having the sense that it’s like, okay, it’s not for me, it’s too hard, or one of the factors is, is that, you know, am I going to injure myself? Can my knees hold out at my age? You know, and I had people saying, you’re going to ruin your knees and you’re not going to, you know, I mean, so I had some of those kind of.

[17:16] Steve Hobeck: Naysayers coming in and saying, you don’t want to do this. And, but, you know, I thought, well, why not? Maybe I’m fine. Maybe I won’t have any knee problems or leg problems or whatever. But again, part of this is, is something that I have said in the past. There are a lot of, kind of throughout my life, I use this term as the dreams that I’ve never dreamt.

[17:35] Steve Hobeck: And so part of it is that I don’t know, keeps me for doing it, but I tend to not have these big dreams and mostly because possibly because of disappointment or I’ll fail. I don’t know exactly why, but I’ve, I’ve, I mean, I’ve had a lot of those things in, in the course of my life. And this is one of those, I never dreamed one of running.

[17:54] Steve Hobeck: I never dreamed of doing a marathon. I mean, And so I never dreamt big in terms of those kinds of things. But what has motivated me is that I’ve always wanted to be better than I am today, tomorrow. I want to see progress. I’d like to see something where I’m better at and I’ll go after it just to get better.

[18:13] Steve Hobeck: I’ve just never been satisfied with just being the same person I was yesterday. And if that makes sense,

[18:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That makes a ton of sense. That’s a great mindset and a great lesson for all of us, because you slowly added on miles. Slowly kept breaking through limiting beliefs or beliefs. You didn’t even know that were there limiting beliefs.

[18:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You didn’t even know existed. And then how did you go from that day where we ran the marathon? You ended up doing half of it with us, thankfully. And which for me, cause I, I was, you

[18:45] Steve Hobeck: had a rough day.

[18:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I had a rough day. And then what took you from there to.

[18:52] Steve Hobeck: Well, when I realized I could actually run 13 miles, I thought, okay, that’s kind of cool.

[18:56] Steve Hobeck: I’ve never done that before. Well, can I do 14 or 15 or can I do more? And I think it was somewhat after that, that I was like, you know what? For the first time, I thought, okay, well, maybe, maybe I can start thinking about running a marathon. I wonder what that would be like. I wonder what would it take to actually run a marathon?

[19:12] Steve Hobeck: I mean, since you guys did, it’s like, okay, these are guys that, I mean, I think you are the first two guys that I ever knew. That actually ran a marathon. I don’t know that I, I may have been around people. I just was not aware. Uh, and I’m sure that’s the case, but you know, I was like, Hey, and I saw you guys train, I saw what you guys did to put, you know, what kind of mileage you had to put into to get there.

[19:32] Steve Hobeck: And the fact that you and Dyfus was. I was like, okay, this is maybe this is something I can do. I can get to that next level. And I decided it’s like, okay, I think I’ll, I think I’ll see if I can do a marathon and I started training for it. I hadn’t even signed up, but I started hitting the miles. Adding a little more miles in and I’m, again, I had no clue how to train for a marathon, except for what you guys did.

[19:57] Steve Hobeck: That was kind of my, that was kind of my model at the time. And, and I’m a researcher. My profession is, is as an engineer. So I, I don’t mind digging in and doing the research. So I did start doing some research and figuring out, okay, you know, is there a good plan? And I decided to sign up for the Richmond Marathon.

[20:14] Steve Hobeck: That’s up there. Local, popular race for a lot of people, and it’s supposed to be relatively unflat, quote, unquote. I learned later it’s nothing, it’s not flat. So I, I trained for it and ran it and actually, and oddly enough, I actually was running that with the purpose. I wanted to run the Boston Marathon at some point.

[20:35] Steve Hobeck: So I was like, if I’m going to run a marathon, I want to run the marathon. So in order to get into Boston, you have to qualify. And so Richmond was the closest qualifying race. And so I ran the race and it was a stretch for me to actually qualify and knowing what my training had been. And I had made it and I was doing really well up to mile 22.

[20:58] Steve Hobeck: And I actually thought, okay, Hey, I’m going to, I’m going to qualify. And I had to go to the bathroom so bad, I stopped at this, there were two port a potties at mile 22. And there were two. I assume runners inside the port a potties that were taking forever. Well, by that time I was starting to cool down.

[21:15] Steve Hobeck: Finally just said, Hey, we’re in a race people. Let’s go. And so anyway, went into, did my business, came back out and my legs started to seize up. And so I couldn’t, it took me another mile of walking just to kind of get them to unfreeze. And I mean, it was really bad experience. And I thought, okay, now I’m not gonna, I’m not going to qualify.

[21:34] Steve Hobeck: But I was one minute past my qualifying time, which was still, I was like, okay, that’s cool. So I, I, at that point. I actually knew that I could do this, you know, the circumstances, my first marathon, it was a, it was a great learning experience. And, um, you know, you had to learn about the nutrition and the hydration and all that stuff, you know, I didn’t know anything about any of that.

[21:53] Steve Hobeck: And so I thought, okay, great experience. That was my first marathon and, and it still did pretty decent considering.

[22:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Sure. And you ended up. Eventually qualifying for Boston?

[22:04] Steve Hobeck: I did, yeah. I, so the, there was another somewhat local race down in Virginia Beach and so I ran that one. I did, uh, five minutes better, uh, than, than the qualifying time.

[22:14] Steve Hobeck: So I was able to, to get into Boston.

[22:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What was that moment like? And maybe it was, uh, slow build. So there wasn. Some sort of, you know, crescendo of a moment, but you went from running a mile was one of the hardest things I’ve done and I, you know, struggling to get a mile to freaking Boston. What was that like?

[22:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, what was that realization like? Did, did it hit you or was it just kinda like, no, this is just another, you know, barrier. I broke.

[22:38] Steve Hobeck: Oh no, it hit me. I remember when I got in this race, the second marathon, I remember getting Tom. Get mile 22. Okay. Hi, I’m Ronnick. I didn’t think about this, but I got to mile 22 and it’s like, and I knew what my time and I knew what my pace was going to be.

[22:51] Steve Hobeck: And there was this guy that I knew from Charlottesville. He was actually, he was kind of at this cheer zone. He saw me and he started running with me a little bit. And anyway, he was excited to see me. And he’s like, Hey dude, I was telling him as I was running, I said, dude, I’m Ronnick. I’m going to Boston.

[23:03] Steve Hobeck: And he’s like, how can you tell? He says, you haven’t finished the race. I said, dude, I’m going to Boston. So I knew at that point, unless I fell over or something and just died, I was going to meet my time. So I got to the finish line and it was just like, I can’t believe this. I’m actually going, I’m going to qualify for Boston and I’m going to run Boston.

[23:19] Steve Hobeck: You know, it’s like, okay, the dream that I never dreamt, right? I mean, so it’s crazy, you know, that I was able to get to that point. And of course, again, second marathon learning. How to train properly, but also, you know, some of the other, how to maintain your pace. And anyway, it was, it was a really good experience.

[23:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What did it feel like when you showed up in Boston and the gun went off, you’re on the line and here we go, the Boston Marathon.

[23:44] Steve Hobeck: Well, one, it’s overwhelming with how many people that are there and you, you know, in Boston, it’s a point to point race. So they bus you out on these school buses. It’s about a 45 minute to an hour ride out there to the starting line.

[23:57] Steve Hobeck: And so, you know, the whole time you’re like. This is very surreal. And, you know, with literally, you know, what, 30, 000 people being bussed out to Hopkinson to be able to, you know, start the race. And then, you know, you’re one of 30, 000 people, you know, you, you start on the line and, and just, just everything seems so surreal.

[24:16] Steve Hobeck: And then, you know, you start the race and then you’re, you know, you got 26. 2 miles and literally like of sheer people cheering you on. And it’s just, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced, not even close in the, in my running experience. And so for, for 26 miles, you got people just really encouraging you.

[24:35] Steve Hobeck: And of course all the runners on the course, and that was, uh, particularly It was a challenging, there was some, some weather, it was heavy rain at times, and it was fairly cool, or almost cold for that day. But I remember getting near the finish line, and I, I mean, I literally was like in the last, I don’t know, few hundred yards, and I, and I’m looking up at this sign that was Boston Marathon, 2023.

[24:58] Steve Hobeck: And I’m just like, I can’t believe this. The sign is getting closer and I’m like, I’m going to finish this. I can’t believe that I’m, I’m going to finish the Boston marathon. And actually at a really good pace. I mean, I finished with a 328, which was well below for my age group and qualified for the next year during that race, which was one of my goals.

[25:17] Steve Hobeck: But Jim, I got to the, to the finish line and I probably wasn’t, I don’t know, maybe 20 yards past the finish line. And I, I, I literally broke. I mean, I literally started weeping because I could not believe I had experienced this thing, that I had done this thing, that I had a dream that I had never dreamt, right?

[25:37] Steve Hobeck: It was just, it was crazy. And probably for, you know, five minutes, I was just, it just, This elation, uh, overwhelming sense of accomplishment and, and just, you know, I don’t want to say being proud of myself, but being proud of something that I never imagined doing. And then, and then I froze after that. I mean, literally, it was so cold.

[25:58] Steve Hobeck: I mean, I had, it was, it was, Just very, very surreal that whole time.

[26:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You broke through so many barriers mentally and physically to get there. And I got to be part of your journey the whole way, just, you know, working out with you and seeing you. And, uh, you know, I saw the, the Steve who was overweight and just getting started and saw the Steve who freaking crushed the Boston marathon.

[26:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And like you said, it’s, it’s just a tunnel of people cheering you on. Contrast. That with the ultra marathon experience at say, I don’t know, Holiday Lake, I know is one that’s sort of local to us here in Virginia, but you’re running even further. You’re running on trails, which is a lot harder. And there’s not a, a line of people cheering you on the entire way.

[26:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Contrast that experience.

[26:46] Steve Hobeck: There are really two very different types of running. And, uh, I remember the first time I got on a trail and I had been road running and that was all I knew. And I, I don’t even remember exactly how I got into it, but I think somebody, again, another person said, Hey, you know, maybe come try our trail.

[27:00] Steve Hobeck: And so I remember running my first, uh, my first trail, which is not too far from where I live. And I was, as I was running, I looked at my watch and I was like, Oh my gosh, I can’t, I’m doing a 10 and a half minute pace. And I’m thinking, I can’t, that’s not possible. I literally thought something was wrong with my watch because I thought, this is crazy.

[27:19] Steve Hobeck: I should, I felt like I was running like an eight minute pace. And it’s like, well, something’s not right anyway. So it took me a little bit to get oriented to the trail, the whole different trail mindset, because you’re just not going to run anywhere near as fast. But yet the, The, uh, perceived effort is not much different, right?

[27:36] Steve Hobeck: So you, you know, but it’s a different beast altogether. So anyway, so that was the kind of the, the, the, the first experience with trail running. I don’t know. I actually didn’t even know anybody that was certainly not in our F3 group. I don’t believe there were any trail runners at the time. And so I just, I just took an interest to it.

[27:53] Steve Hobeck: It was one of those things like, okay, well, I’ve done the road thing. Maybe, maybe trails would be kind of interesting. So, you know, I, I started. Working on that and then thought, you know, Hey, if I can run a marathon, maybe, maybe I can run an ultra marathon. And most ultra marathons started around the, you know, 50K, 30, 31, 32 miles.

[28:12] Steve Hobeck: Um, and so actually my first one was Holiday Lake. That was my first, uh, 50K run. Um, and when, and it was, uh, quite the experience. I didn’t know a single person there. I went out and just. Did, did my own thing and, and I learned some good lessons on my first, my first ultra. I had been training on the road, on roads and did very little trail running at that point.

[28:35] Steve Hobeck: And, um, when I finished, I was like, okay, I, I realized I had underestimated The dynamic aspects of the trails, the ups and the downs and how that was going to affect your, your quads and how that was going to affect your, you know, just overall running performance. And so when I was finished that race, my quads were just blown, completely blown.

[28:54] Steve Hobeck: I mean, I could barely walk. Always. Find it fascinating to, to see at the, whether it’s a marathon or an ultramarathon, uh, you know, see people walk at the end of that. They’re walking like zombies because their legs are pretty much shot. It was a great experience, but that was, uh, so it taught me a lesson.

[29:10] Steve Hobeck: It’s like, okay, I got to get on the trails more. Cause I thought I had plenty of miles I had, I was getting all the, you know, the distances in, but I just wasn’t getting the kind of trail experience that I needed. That was in a February race. And I had already signed, even before I, even before I had done that race, I had already signed up for my next ultra marathon, which is another one, not too far from here.

[29:32] Steve Hobeck: So I was going to go after that one. And so I had to kind of, I thought between these two races, I was like, okay, how do I change my training? How do I change my, uh, You know, my trail, add more trail miles, work on the quads anyway. So, so I went from finishing my first 50K, I think it was about 50 percent of the pack.

[29:51] Steve Hobeck: I was right about halfway in the thing. And it was pretty decent. When I got to the next race, you know, I’m just doing me, doing my thing. I get finished with the race and I felt much different. It was much better race. So I don’t know, I was probably had passed the finish line, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. And then somebody said, Hey, your name was just called.

[30:11] Steve Hobeck: They said, you know, aren’t you Steve? And they just called my name. And I was like, what in the world? Why would they be calling my name? So I went over where the finish line was and I said, did, did, you know, my name is Steve Hobeck and you know, did you. Somebody called my name. Oh, yeah, yeah. You won your age group.

[30:27] Steve Hobeck: I’m like, do what? It’s like, what is that? I don’t even know what that meant. I mean, it’s like, you know, it’s like, okay, I won my age group. Yeah, you’re the, you’re the grandmaster winner for this race. And, and there were, you know, hundreds of people in this race. I was like, holy crap. I can’t believe that. I, I, I just won and they gave me this nice shirt and all these, you know, Nice little, you know, the swag that came with us.

[30:49] Steve Hobeck: Like, I kind of like this swag stuff. And so I was like, I can’t believe that I, that I, you know, I wasn’t trying, I wasn’t even thinking about it. Well, that was a, that was actually a really dangerous thing for me to learn about winning my age group. That was a motivator for me. It’s like, okay, well, if I can do it once, let’s see if I can do this again.

[31:05] Steve Hobeck: And I think I probably have done, I don’t know, nine or 10 ultras at this point.

[31:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And you’re how old now, Steve?

[31:12] Steve Hobeck: I’ll be 65 in another month. So 64 up to this point, I’ve won every ultra race in my age group, except for one, and I came in second.

[31:20] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Now let’s break this down for the listener. Because we tell this story of going from running one mile that was painful to getting better and better and just breaking through barriers and limiting beliefs and all this.

[31:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And, and it sounds like this smooth, easy journey to winning your age group. And almost every ultra marathon you you’ve been in and qualifying for Boston and running a great time. Oh, wow. This is how easy, how easy. I’ve seen a The injuries and the setbacks. Can you talk about some of those, including the one that you’re dealing with now?

[31:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But I mean, talk about this wasn’t always, well, none of it’s easy, but I mean, this is even harder than most people would even think with some of the injuries you’ve, you’ve dealt with. What kind of doubt creeps in? What kind of.

[32:08] Steve Hobeck: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, and I, I, I don’t know. It’s. I don’t know if it’s uncommon. I expect it’s not.

[32:14] Steve Hobeck: When you get to my age, there are things it’s like, you know, you have a limited amount of time. Now, again, I feel like, uh, I’ve been in my age group, I’m pretty much running and kind of in an elite level, which I never imagined being able to do. So I actually found out that I’m a good runner, you know, so it’s kind of this bizarre thing that I, one, I never liked running, I hated it and didn’t have any interest in it to, to becoming like, you know, kind of at the elite level and actually Not just loving it, but becoming an obsession.

[32:43] Steve Hobeck: And so, you know, there’s always this thing, okay, the risk of injuring, if he takes you out at this point, is this the end for me? Is this, can I continue to, and, and one of the things that’s really been sort of a challenge for me mentally is that. Right. Realizing that at some point, I’m not going to be as good as I am.

[33:00] Steve Hobeck: I’m, you know, you kind of going up on a peak and then, you know, you might be there for a little while, but at some point I know that I’m going to start coming down off of that. And, but, you know, I guess one of the motivators is I want to still be running if possible at the elite level. At my age, whatever age that is with the, you know, and, and trying to compete and that being a motivator for me, but you know, I’ve had a, you mentioned a couple of injuries, injuries, and you know, that is the, especially on trail, uh, there’s always the risk of falling and, you know, having a major injury.

[33:30] Steve Hobeck: And I have fallen quite a number of times. Any trail runner is going to fall. It’s just a, you know, you get lucky. Maybe you fall in some leaves, you don’t hit your head against a rock or, you know, that kind of thing. So there’s always a little bit of a risk. And, and I have, I’ve hit my head against rocks.

[33:42] Steve Hobeck: And fortunately, none of those prevented me from running. Usually it’s, you know, it’s the leg injury, but I’ve had a couple of injuries. One kind of, uh, one of the ultra marathons, which is a. Crazy, stupid one that I did, but I’m glad I checked the box. I won’t run it again. Takes place in mid August at noon at the hottest point of the year.

[34:00] Steve Hobeck: And it’s a 30 mile race. And you basically run up a mountain and you run back down and you do that five times and I managed to injure both of my Achilles on that race. So I had to come out of that somewhat diminished performance and had to sort of nurse those back and that kind of set off a number of other Possible problems with my running gait changed and it had affected me to where didn’t know it at the time, but ended up having a really major stress fracture.

[34:31] Steve Hobeck: But I had noticed that after that race, I had to kind of compensate for the pain that I was experiencing in my Achilles. The biggest concern that I have is I don’t want to run. I don’t want to do something that’s going to permanently injure me. So I’ve kind of tried to find that fine line of how can I continue to train and not.

[34:48] Steve Hobeck: Go over the edge. So anyway, coming off of that injury, I was starting to, uh, just affect kind of how I was running and, uh, went into, I did an ultra marathon in the February, this, the injury was in August. I think I’d actually maybe had some smaller races or something up to that point. But in February I had an ultra marathon and, um, I noticed after the race and I did real well, it was a good race for me, but I noticed after the race, I was having some pain in my right calf.

[35:14] Steve Hobeck: It’s a little concerning, but. I thought, okay, you know, so it went away after a couple of days and then I had another race after that. That was a 25k race. And after that race again, I noticed I got this pain, but it was more intense during that, after that race than it was the first time. This was in early March.

[35:35] Steve Hobeck: And anyway, after a few days it went away and then April, there is a race in Charlottesville, which is where we live, the Charlottesville 10 miler. And I had done that quite a number of times and it ran that and it started hurting during the race as probably about mile eight and any, and so it, Anyway, but I got to the end of it and I, when I stopped running, I could barely walk.

[35:54] Steve Hobeck: I mean, I was like, I could almost not walk. And, um, I got home and I, on my way, I asked my wife to pick me up a pair of crutches, go to Walmart, get me some crutches. Cause I knew I was like, I couldn’t walk. So I, so I had a couple of days on crutches and I decided it was time I needed to go to the doctor.

[36:09] Steve Hobeck: So I went and they diagnosed me with a nerve problem, my sciatic nerve going down there and it was just manifesting down in that calf area. And so, um, They were okay with me continuing to run, but I was starting to do PT and they wanted to try to work it out, and they thought it was a problem with my L5 and was maybe compressing or something on the nerve, and that’s where it was causing the problem down in my calf, and so they.

[36:34] Steve Hobeck: Continue, you know, it was okay to continue to run cause it’s a nerve problem. And I, in my mind, it’s like, okay, I can just run through the pain and just deal with it. And then ran Boston again, mid April, got to the first 10 miles of the race. And it was, uh, it was okay. I actually was doing pretty good. And I had lost some training because I just couldn’t run the course.

[36:52] Steve Hobeck: Kind of miles that I needed to, to really train for, for Boston. But even so, I was in good enough shape that I knew that I could qualify. Anyway, I got to mile 10, pain started to set in. By the time I got to mile 12, the pain was so intense that I couldn’t, I couldn’t run anymore. I had to walk for the next 14 miles.

[37:09] Steve Hobeck: I managed to sort of run, walk, hobble along and made it to the finish line. And it was very disappointing, obviously, cause you know, well, then I got back from the race. That, that whole, just actually from the end of the race. To me, getting home was the most amazing, awful experience, just because at that point I was in such severe pain.

[37:29] Steve Hobeck: I ended up in a wheelchair at the airport. And anyway, it was just trying to finally got home. Then I called the doctor and said, you know, I need to, I think I need to come in and have a look. This is, I’m not convinced this is a nerve problem. And so I went in, sure enough, they decided to do some imaging.

[37:46] Steve Hobeck: Done and had, uh, two, what do they call grade four stress fractures in my tibia. And not just one, but two. And which means they like were almost cracked all the way through the bone in two places. The doctor called me after I had the MRI the next morning. And she’s like, you got to get off your leg now.

[38:02] Steve Hobeck: You got to get on crutches and in a boot right away, because if we don’t, you are at risk of having to have a rod put in your leg. And I was like, okay, so this is crazy. And I was like, I can’t believe this is, you know, major injury. And anyway, I was on crutches for 10 weeks in a boot. And only got out about six weeks ago.

[38:21] Steve Hobeck: And so I’m now making my way back. And I’ve got a few miles now. I’m up to, I think I’m up to about five or six miles now.

[38:29] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for the listener, I had Ruben Gonzalez on the podcast here. We’ll have the link. To that episode number in the action plan. I don’t remember off the top of my head, but if you’re not getting the action plans emailed to you every Monday, make sure you get on my email list, go to jimharshawjr.com/action, and you’ll get those delivered to you. But I interviewed Ruben Gonzalez, four time Olympian in the luge, and he’s going for his fifth Olympics. And, you know, it’s always great. I get to interview people after they’ve won, you know, all these accolades and do all these amazing things. And I like to interview people when they’re in the midst of challenge.

[39:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And Ruben is in the midst of a challenge. He had gotten into an accident or was, uh, uh, on the, on the track, on the loose track, and we got to talk to Ruben during that, and he’s still on his journey back to trying to becoming an Olympian and for 2026 Winter Olympics. And it’s the same with Steve, like, so Steve, we’re catching him here at a time when he’s obviously older than he’s ever been, and he is dealing with the, the biggest injury and setback of his running career.

[39:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And the thing that really triggered me to say, gosh, I got to have Steve on the podcast was when he said. I’ve already signed up for my next race. You know, he’d signed up for his next race. We didn’t think I can’t freaking walk. And he had signed up for a race. So my question for the listeners, how do you approach your adversity?

[39:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Right. Do you set the next goal? Set the next standard. Do you learn? He said several times, like during this interview, like I learned good. He wrote this down. I learned good lessons. From his first ultra marathon. He was talking about his first ultra and what he was saying is like, I failed, I messed up, I, you know, I, I screwed up my nutrition and all of that.

[40:11] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But it’s like, it’s learning, like you learn by doing, you learn by screwing things up and you get better. And I’ve gotten to witness this firsthand and to be, you know, a part of Steve’s journey. So Steve. What do you say to the listener who’s sitting there and wants to level up in some area of their life?

[40:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And maybe it’s running, maybe it’s fitness. And maybe that’s kind of the easiest way to answer this. Or, or maybe it’s just in, in their life in general, right? Maybe it’s in their business or they want to start a business or they want to improve their marriage or some area of their life. What do you say to that person who is stuck?

[40:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Maybe they, they have dreams that they haven’t dreamt. What do you say to them?

[40:50] Steve Hobeck: So, two things. One is, and you’ve already mentioned this, and of course, you’re part of the workout group, and having a community that is supportive is huge. So, the community and having a target. Because when I have the community and I actually communicate my target, Then I kind of feel accountable to that.

[41:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And, and by the way, I want to mention this. I just hit, this hit me recently is you then also find other people who were behind you and saying, okay, Steve, let’s go for a run. There’s other guys. I don’t typically run with Steve cause he’s crazy. He runs way further than I do, but there’s other guys who are like, Hey, let’s, let’s go for a run.

[41:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like people start helping you and they want to be part of you achieving that goal too.

[41:28] Steve Hobeck: Right, right. And, and, you know, if I, if I’ve shared my goal, it’s like, okay, you know, you mentioned I signed up for a 50k. My doctor’s saying, you did what? And I’m okay if I don’t do it, but it’s a target for me. It’s like, okay, I’ve got something to motivate me to keep going.

[41:42] Steve Hobeck: It’s a realistic goal too. I mean, you know, I look out the number of months, I know how long it’s going to take me to train to get to the certain point, but having people and the target, you know, those are the two things. Because Once I’ve shared my goal or my target, it’s like, okay, hey, how’s that training coming, Steve?

[41:56] Steve Hobeck: How are you feeling? You know, and especially people that I run with, they know kind of like, hey, are you sure you want to go after this? And generally most of my runners that I do run with, they know I’m crazy anyway. They know I’m going to push the boundary as far as I possibly can. And even my PT and my doctor, they’re all like, you know, you’re one of those crazy ones.

[42:16] Steve Hobeck: But I think that’s part of it is just really keeping that target out there and having a community of people. That one know you and know what you’re capable of doing. So that we get in that moment, it’s like, now they’ll push you. It’s pretty simple stuff, really

[42:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: simple, simple, not easy, but it is simple.

[42:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for the listener, I hope you took a lot of value and lessons out of this. Uh, Steve, you’re part of my, what I call environment of excellence. It’s great to be around you. You just set the bar high and, and it raises my level, not only in your, in your running, but also just in. Terms of your business. And also more importantly, just the type of human being you are.

[42:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So grateful to have you in my orbit. So thank you. And thank you for sharing your lessons with us here today. Thank

[42:53] Steve Hobeck: you. What a great opportunity. I appreciate it.

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