What 72 Marathons Teach Leaders About Discipline and Community — with the Mile 20 Podcast

Results Don't Come From One Big Push: What 50 States of Marathons Taught the Mile 20 Hosts

In this post: Mile 20 podcast hosts Lori Fechtman and Laura Lee have run a marathon in all 50 states. They explain why results come from sustained effort, why joy is a signal worth heeding, and how commitment to a partner keeps discipline alive on inconvenient days.

Midway through a December marathon in Rehoboth, Delaware, Lori Fechtman and Laura Lee stopped running. Thousands of geese were migrating in long lines along the shore as the tide came in, and the two friends pulled out a phone to record them.

Runners chasing a time do not stop to film birds. For Fechtman and Lee, that stop was the point. "It's about the journey," Lee said on Activating Greatness, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group.

The two best friends, who host the Mile 20 podcast, have run a marathon in all 50 states and have logged 62 marathons together. They call themselves back-of-the-pack runners, and they are not chasing records. Their habit of showing up, race after race and year after year, still carries a lesson for any leader trying to sustain performance. Lee put it in one line: "Results don't come from one big push."

Two Paths to the Same Start Line

Fechtman, a self-described retired stay-at-home mom with a Bachelor of Science in biology, took up running to have something that was hers. Over time it grew into what she called "a crazy dream to do a marathon in all 50 states."

Lee came to running through loss. A West Point graduate who began her career as an engineer officer in the Army, she hated running in the military because it felt like punishment. In 2004 her youngest brother, Ned, died of cancer. Looking for a way to cope, she joined the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program and ran the Disney marathon, since Disney was one of his favorite places. She kept going until she had raised $27,000, a figure she chose because he died at 27. Today she is a Vice President at Comcast, where she has worked for more than 12 years.

The two met in a running group in 2014. Every time Fechtman signed up for a race, Lee signed up too. After the 2015 Rehoboth race, Fechtman made it official. "I just looked at you and I said, you're doing this with me, you know that," she told Lee.

They finished the final state, Hawaii, in 2023. Their children pushed them to start a podcast, and Fechtman's oldest daughter, Maggie, produces it. The name comes from the point in a marathon where the race gets hard, which the hosts see as a parallel to life for women in their 50s.

Define the Goal Before You Judge the Effort

Host Alec McChesney asked the pair about a phrase printed on his old high school basketball shorts: Good enough is neither. How does that square with showing up on days when you have little to give?

Lee answered by questioning the measuring stick. "If my goal was to be a really fast runner, I would be doing things differently right now," she said. Her goals are to travel, spend time with her best friend, finish, and feel good afterward. By those measures, she is doing exactly what she should. "Your greatness is really dependent upon what goals you set for yourself," she said.

Fechtman said her own goals changed once she met Lee. She started out focused on her time. Now she asks what brings her joy. "Any goal that you're making in life should bring you joy," she said. "And if it's not bringing you joy, why is that your goal?"

Joy Is a Business Question

Lee applied that test to her career. She had been in a role she did not enjoy when the two attended an all-women's camp in France built around finding what brings you joy. On the flight home, she mapped out how her team could be reorganized. Then she told her boss her job was not bringing her joy anymore.

The team changed, and so did her engagement. "I am so freaking happy doing my job right now," she said.

The harder part, she said, is the self-awareness it takes to see the problem. "Sometimes the thing that you are successful at, and that is raking in money and stuff, is not the thing that is bringing you joy," she said.

She now asks her own team members the same questions. "Are you happy doing what you're doing? What are your priorities? I can't prioritize stuff for you," she said.

"Results don't come from one big push."

Laura Lee, Vice President, Comcast, and Co-Host, Mile 20

Discipline Shows Up When It Is Inconvenient

This year the two committed to running a mile every day. Fechtman admits some days everything in her says stop. What keeps her going is knowing herself. "It's not always the small things that make greatness," she said. "It's the combination of small things that make the greatness." So she puts on her shoes, because she knows she will feel better afterward.

For Lee, "discipline is really about how you show up when it's inconvenient." Before their 5 a.m. runs, the two text each other to make sure neither is still asleep. On winter mornings, Fechtman's reply to complaints about the cold is "buckle up, buttercup."

That accountability matters more than willpower. "You got to dig deep, you find the grip because I have this commitment to this person," Lee said. The short weekday runs matter too. "Those little runs, they matter," she said. Joe Witte made a related case for the momentum mindset.

Sustainability is part of the formula. Their running group once had 20 to 30 regulars, and Lee said the two of them are the only ones still out there. They never pushed their bodies to the point of breaking themselves for a personal record.

Put Your People First

Both women trace their leadership to advice they received early. As a 21-year-old second lieutenant running a firing range at midnight, Lee got a lesson from Staff Sgt. Nunez: The rank on her collar would not earn respect. "Always put your soldiers before yourself," she recalled him saying, and "your soldiers will always take care of you." In the Army, she said, soldiers always eat first.

Fechtman learned a version of it before her wedding: The bride sets the tone. She carried that into leadership roles, including PTO president at her children's elementary school, where she inherited a board with a history of drama. When people brought her gossip, she said, "it would end and stop with me." Toni Burkard explored how leaders earn that kind of trust in building great teams.

Key Takeaways

1. Set the goal before you grade the effort. Whether "good enough" is acceptable depends on what you are trying to achieve.
2. Treat joy as a signal. Lee's career changed when she admitted her successful role no longer brought her joy. Ask your team the same question.
3. Build discipline on commitment to others. Accountability to a partner keeps habits alive on inconvenient days.
4. Small, sustained efforts compound. Short weekday runs, a mile a day, and steady effort add up to results that one big push never delivers.
5. Lead from behind the line. Put your people first and absorb the drama instead of passing it on.

The Takeaway: Evenings Forgive, Mornings Forget

On their runs through Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Lee and Fechtman pass a sign that reads "evenings forgive, mornings forget." Lee named that kind of grace the most underrated skill for anyone building consistency. "It's OK to go and not be perfect at something," she said. "Tomorrow's another day."

That is the balance their story strikes. Grace is what keeps discipline from breaking you, and discipline is what keeps grace from becoming an excuse. Leaders who want lasting results should stop waiting for the big push and start protecting the small, daily commitments that make 50 states possible.

Listen to the Full Episode

Hear Lori Fechtman and Laura Lee's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on Activating Greatness. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.