Field Notes from the Proving is a weekly 15-minute dispatch from those who refuse to stay small.
Each episode explores discipline, expansion, friction, and the quiet decisions that redefine identity.
This isn’t about performance.
It’s about authorship.
For high-achievers, builders, veterans, founders, perfectionists, athletes, and anyone who has ever had to fight something internally or externally. Only the Proven stands to overcome, prevail, and expand.
Proof survives.
onlytheproven.com
42 - The "Keep Going Anyway" Mentality | The Marine Corps Marathon
What happens when you’ve done everything you can—and you still don’t know if your body will make it to the finish?
After months of training, injuries, physical therapy, missed long runs, and a knee that refused to cooperate, Chris arrived at the 2025 Marine Corps Marathon carrying more doubt than confidence.
The goal had changed.
Forget the perfect race.
Forget the perfect time.
Just finish.
From a freezing 5 A.M. walk to the starting line, to crying during the National Anthem, running through the deeply emotional Blue Mile, and seeing his husband Louis and best friend Denise chasing him around Washington, D.C. to cheer him on, the race became about something much bigger than running.
Then, at mile 20, the knee started throbbing.
Six miles remained.
And Chris had a choice.
He kept going.
He finished in 3:27—shaving 14 minutes off his previous 3:41 marathon—and still crossed the finish line wondering what might have been possible with a healthy knee.
Because sometimes success doesn't feel exactly the way you imagined it would.
Sometimes you're proud and disappointed.
Grateful and hungry.
Celebrating how far you've come while still wondering how much further you could have gone.
This episode is about learning to accept the race you have instead of mourning the race you wanted.
Whether you're fighting through injury, addiction, grief, failure, uncertainty, a career setback, a broken relationship, or simply a season of life that hasn't gone according to plan, the question eventually becomes the same:
Will you keep going anyway?
You don't need perfect circumstances.
You don't need certainty.
Sometimes you don't even need confidence.
You just need to take the next step.
The work continues.
#TheProving #FieldNotesFromTheProving #MarineCorpsMarathon #MCM #Marathon #MarathonRunner #Running #Runner #RunningMotivation #MarathonTraining #RunningCommunity #PersonalGrowth #Resilience #MentalStrength #KeepGoing #NeverGiveUp #TrustTheProcess #Discipline #Perseverance #OvercomingAdversity #Mindset #SelfImprovement #Motivation #PersonalDevelopment #InjuryRecovery #Comeback #Transformation #EarnedNotGiven #TheWorkContinues
7 Oct 2026
41 - The Collapse and Reconstruction | When Confidence Is Gone
There comes a point in every difficult season where you've done everything you know how to do—and you still don't know if it's enough.
Going into October, the Marine Corps Marathon was only weeks away. The training was done. The fitness was there. But after months of injury, uncertainty, physical therapy, and constantly questioning my own body, something much harder had started to disappear: trust in myself.
One 20-mile run made me feel invincible.
One bad run a week later made me question everything.
That's helplessness.
And it isn't unique to running.
It's the place people find themselves in during recovery, after heartbreak, after service, after loss, after failure, or during any season where effort can no longer guarantee the outcome.
This episode isn't about whether my knee was ready for 26.2 miles.
It's about what happens when certainty disappears—and you have to move anyway.
Because reconstruction doesn't begin when confidence returns.
Reconstruction begins when confidence is gone, and you move anyway.
The work continues.
#TheProven #OnlyTheProven #TheProving #CollapseAndReconstruction #MarineCorpsMarathon #MarathonTraining #RunningMotivation #MentalToughness #Resilience #Grit #Discipline #Recovery #AddictionRecovery #Veterans #FirstResponders #HighPerformance #KeepGoing #TrustTheProcess #PersonalGrowth #Rebuild #EarnedNotGiven #RunnerMindset #MarathonRunner #MCM #Faith #MentalStrength
7 Oct 2026
40 - The Injury & Grit | When Your Mind Stops Trusting Your Body
By the end of September, my body was capable of running 20 miles. Twenty-two miles. Maybe even the full 26.2.
But injury does something more dangerous than cause pain.
It creates doubt.
You start thinking injured. Moving injured. Changing your stride, your breathing, your technique—making tiny adjustments to protect yourself until those tiny adjustments begin changing everything.
In Episode 40 of Field Notes from The Proving, I talk about what it feels like to be physically capable but mentally unsure. To feel helpless only weeks away from the biggest goal of your year. And to keep going anyway.
Because this isn't really an episode about running.
It's about what happens when something in your life makes you question whether you're capable anymore—and the role grit, community, asking for help, and perseverance play when confidence disappears.
Sometimes you don't need to know how the story ends.
You just need enough belief to take the next step.
Because you never know when you're one second away from the answer you needed.
The work continues.
#TheProven #FieldNotesFromTheProving #InjuryAndGrit #Grit #Perseverance #Resilience #MentalToughness #KeepGoing #Endurance #MarathonTraining #Running #RunnerMindset #RunningInjury #MarathonRunner #MentalStrength #OvercomingAdversity #SelfBelief #Community #PersonalGrowth #Discipline #TrustTheProcess #NeverQuit #TheWorkContinues
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Contact Field Notes from The Proving
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Field Notes from The Proving?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
