He didn’t get far. In the snow, his heart stopped. Hypothermia had already taken his body temperature down to 64 degrees. Rescuers tried three times to get his heart going again. He was airlifted off the mountain and put into an induced coma for five days.
He lived.
Most people would call that the end of the story. A man nearly dies on a mountain, he stays off mountains for the rest of his life. Nobody would blame him for that.
Tommy didn’t see it that way. To him, it was unfinished business.
He ran the London Marathon to raise money for the mountain rescue team that pulled him out of the snow. Then he kept training. Four years after he nearly died on that trail, he went back and finished the Bob Graham Round, start to finish. One of the rescue volunteers who helped save his life ran the opening leg with him. The doctor who treated him in the hospital was waiting at the finish line.
I read that story and it stuck with me.
Most of us have something we started and walked away from. A goal that scared us. A deal that fell apart. A version of ourselves we gave up on because it got hard, or it hurt, or life knocked us down for a while and we never got back up.
Tommy Price is proof the clock doesn’t run out just because you stopped. You can go back. You can finish it. It might take four years. It might take longer than that. Doesn’t matter.
The finish line is still there waiting on you. Go get it.
Phil
What stays with me
The part I keep thinking about is the words he used. He did not treat it like a big comeback story. He treated it like something he still needed to finish. That is a calm way to look at something that almost killed you.
I also notice who showed up. A rescue volunteer ran the first leg with him. The doctor waited at the finish line. Nobody finishes something like that alone, and the people who helped him were part of the finish.
Most of us will never run the Bob Graham Round. But we all have something we walked away from after it hurt. A job, a goal, a habit, a prayer we stopped saying. Maybe it is not dead. Maybe it is just unfinished. You do not have to do it all today. You just have to go back.
Tommy Price finished the Bob Graham Round on September 6, 2026, in 23 hours and 35 minutes, beating the famous 24 hour mark. He had raised about £10,000 for the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team along the way. You can read more at Run247.
Keep reading
- God and Entrepreneurship:
- A Simple Guide to Stoic Thinking in Daily Life
- The Power of Persistence: Redefining Success in the Age of Self-Made Legend
What Finishing Teaches Us
There is a special kind of strength in going back to something that hurt you and finishing it. It does not come from being fearless. It comes from deciding that fear will not have the last word.
Most of us have something unfinished. A goal we dropped, a project we abandoned or a conversation we avoided. Those things stay in the back of the mind and weigh on us.
You do not have to finish everything at once. Choose one thing and take the next small step. A phone call, a first page or ten minutes of work is a good start.
Ask for help. Few people complete hard things alone. A friend, a mentor or a family member can encourage you when you want to quit.
Pick one unfinished thing today. Take one step toward it. You may be closer than you think.
Going back takes courage
Returning to something that nearly broke you is one of the hardest choices there is. Fear makes a lot of sense. So does respect for the danger.
Still, many people find that the thing that scared them most also taught them the most. Finishing what you started can heal something no one else sees.
Count the cost and prepare
Courage is not the same as being reckless. The people who go back usually prepare more carefully than anyone. They learn what went wrong, get help and go in with respect.
If you are facing something hard again, plan well and bring good people with you.
Your unfinished thing
Is there a goal, a conversation or a project you walked away from? You do not have to rush back. But you can decide that it is not over.
Take one small step this week. I am with you.
Words from Positive Phil
The right habit in the wrong mood still works.
