Professional endurance athlete Colin O’Brady is the first to admit that his journey is an unlikely one. After suffering burns over most of his body, doctors were convinced that he wouldn’t walk again. But he had other plans, so he retaught himself to walk, became a professional triathlete, set mountain climbing records, and was the first person to cross Antarctica unaided. After that last accomplishment, which most extreme athletes thought was physically impossible, he (understandably) got asked if he was a “superhuman.”  His response? We all have these feats inside of us; it’s up to us to choose our Everest and start climbing:

Hilaree Nelson was practically born on skis, but when she was approached to join a ski mountaineering expedition she had no idea what she was getting herself into. Her first expedition was miserable, yet it ignited something inside of her that she didn’t know was there. Fast forward 20 years, and she’s now one of the most accomplished ski mountaineers in history. 

What Nelson discovered in herself, she says, is an unending desire to test her limits. She was already physically very strong, so the limits she found herself surpassing were all mental. And that, according to Nelson, is the ability she possesses that makes her seem superhuman. There are people who can lift heavier weights than her and run longer distances, but she can endure.

Professional runner Megan Roche says that a 10K race is a different kind of pain than a 50K race, but competitive running hurts no matter the distance. So how do professional athletes deal with their own bodies telling them to stop? Roche and Colin O’Brady describe how they work with, not against, their minds:

Endurance athletes have always been physically dominant, says sports psychologist Michael Gervais, but at the same time there’s been a stigma around mental health in sports. Physical strength is usually prioritized at the expense of mental strength, and that’s both prohibited athletes from reaching their full potential and caused many non-athletes to not even find out what they’re capable of: