Ross Edgley, Greek Myths, and The Secret of Endurance

According to myth, there was a king in Greece named Sisyphus who was so clever he could outsmart both men and gods. 

The gods, preferring to do the outsmarting themselves, didn’t like this.

Thanatos, god of death, took Sisyphus and tried to chain him in the Underworld. But Sisyphus slyly asked Thanatos to first demonstrate how the chains worked, and so managed to trap death himself in the Underworld. 

This angered the gods even further, and after they freed Thanatos they were eager to punish Sisyphus. 

After successfully evading and infuriating the gods for a little longer, Sisyphus eventually found himself in the Underworld again, this time with no way out. 

The gods, after contemplating how they could punish him, condemned Sisyphus to the task of pushing a boulder up a hill. 

But there was a catch. 

Every time the boulder was near the top of the hill, it would suddenly and inevitably roll back down again—leaving Sisyphus to repeat this impossible task until the end of the world.

“There we go,” one can imagine the gods saying to each other. “That’ll teach him.”

But Sisyphus had one last trick up his sleeve. 

If you could look closely at Sisyphus as he pushes his boulder up the hill, past the sweat trickling down his forehead and below the eyes fixed intently on the horizon, you might see something curious. . .

Sisyphus is smiling. 

This tale is an ancient story that was refreshed by French philosopher Albert Camus in the 20th century. 

Camus turned the myth on its head by suggesting that Sisyphus could outsmart the gods one last time by enjoying his task and finding satisfaction in the struggle, regardless of the outcome. 

In a world where many of us feel like we’re pushing boulders that won’t stay put, Camus wrote that “the struggle itself. . .is enough to fill a man’s heart.”

It’s also a story that helped inspire the subject of today’s email, Ross Edgley, to accomplish some of the most impressive achievements of endurance ever. 

Ross is one of the most interesting athletes we’ve ever studied, and in our opinion one of the most underrated. 

Here is a short list of his accomplishments:

• Became the first person to swim around Great Britain, covering 1,780 miles in 157 days. 

• Completed the longest continuous river swim down the Yukon River covering 510km in 56 hours.

• Ran a marathon pulling a car.

• Climbed a rope to the height of Mount Everest.

• Completed a triathlon with a tree attached to him.

He’s also a pioneer of self-experimentation and auto-analytics, which is one of the reasons we wanted to highlight him in this newsletter. 

For example, he once ran 30 marathons in 30 days on a treadmill in his kitchen…all so that he could test 30 different breakfasts and figure out which exact nutritional combination reacted best with his body to fuel him. 

In this email we want to explore how Ross has done all this—and more importantly, why.

So how is it that humans are capable of such incredible feats?

Some endurance athletes advocate for a fierce, no-excuses mindset—pushing through with sheer grit and intensity. 

(And that approach definitely seems to work for some.)

But if you watch Ross, you’ll see something very different. He’s polite, gentle, and like our mythical friend Sisyphus, he’s almost always smiling. He has a sort of playful curiosity about his own limits. 

“Oh,” he might say after swimming for 48 hours non-stop. “I’ve started hallucinating. Isn’t that interesting? Well, I might as well enjoy the show!”

Ross feels like a modern incarnation of classical gentleman-adventurers like Shackleton, Scott, Amundson and their crews. They too had a quiet, cheery demeanor buoyed by an iron will and resolve to get a job done. 

But possibly equally importantly, his mental strength is paired with a very strong understanding of sports science. In fact, Ross might rather you call him a scientist first and an athlete second. 

Why is that so important?

As a scientist who rigorously measures himself, Ross knows exactly what his limits are—and by treating the laws of physics as one variable and his body as another, he can figure out whether any given challenge should be technically possible.  

While Ross’ mind will likely tell him to quit long before he reaches his true limit, the fact he knows exactly what he should be capable of is often enough to push through his mental barrier and achieve something great—whether or not he hits his goal.  

The combination of mental resilience, physical strength, and scientific understanding of his body is what makes Ross dangerous. 

And even if Ross doesn’t complete the challenge, the struggle alone becomes his reward. 

We get the impression that Ross does these incredible things, less out of a desire for records and more because he enjoys finding a worthy challenge and then struggling with that challenge. 

Here’s what he said on a recent appearance on the Rich Roll podcast. . .

Ross: “For me, the pursuit of a nonstop swim, it might be impossible, it might be never ending. But in many ways, it’s my boulder. The struggle alone is enough to fill my heart. And the carrying of it gives you meaning.” 

Rich: “And if you had to define that meaning, what would that look like?”

Ross: “I think it’s just the relentless pursuit of sports science. So even though you’re rolling the boulder, you’re just collecting data the whole time. So I think that when all is said and done, we’re probably going to end up with the most comprehensive study of ultra endurance in swimming than anywhere else. And I think that will be a pretty cool legacy to leave behind.”

If there’s one takeaway we want Ross’ story to leave you with, this is it. 

Knowing yourself and your limits like Ross does should be both encouraging and motivating.

Your limits—whatever it is you’re working toward—are likely greater than you imagine, and by painting them as a target you should be more likely to come closer to them.

As you continue to consistently come close to these limits, your body will adapt to the demands you place on it and begin to rebuild itself so that these theoretical limits change and expand.

You might find that these limits become a constantly shifting target, always staying one or two steps out of reach. Like Sisyphus’ boulder, you might never quite reach what you’re aiming for. 

But hopefully, the struggle alone becomes enough to fill your heart. 

And if people look close, they’ll see you smiling. 

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Your friends,

Benji and Jacob