Being the worst in the room is where I learn the most, and on day 2068 of this run streak, I want to explain why I chase that feeling instead of avoiding it.

I am away on a business trip at the moment, sat with people who count as colleagues and friends. Most of them are further along in their careers than I am. Some have built bigger companies. Some have raised bigger sums. Some understand markets and numbers in ways I do not yet grasp. Sitting in those conversations, there are moments where I have little to add, or where I quietly feel behind. Anyone who has sat in a room with people sharper or more experienced than them will know the feeling.

For years I would have read that feeling as a warning sign. Get out. Find your level. Stop wasting people's time. This morning's run gave me a different read on it entirely.

Being the least experienced person in a room is not a problem to fix. It is a position worth seeking out, deliberately, again and again, in every area of life that matters to you.

There is a distinction I want to draw clearly here, because it is easy to twist. I am not saying lower your standards or stop trying to improve. Try your hardest, in every field you care about. What I am saying is different: put yourself around people who are ahead of you as often as you can manage it. Running, business, parenting, fitness, whatever the subject. Find the people doing it better and stand close to them.

When I run with athletes stronger than me, I learn things about pacing and mindset no book has taught me. When I sit in business rooms with founders who have scaled further than Operations Director has, I pick up decisions and habits I would never have found on my own. The uncomfortable feeling of not keeping up is not a signal to leave. It is the signal you are in the right room.

Here is what I have noticed, in running and in business both. People who have got somewhere worth getting to are rarely the gatekeeping type. Most of them remember exactly what it felt like to be the newest, slowest, least informed person in their own rooms once. There is an unwritten understanding among people who have put in the work: you help the next person up, because someone once helped you.

So the questions you think are silly are usually not silly at all. And even where you never ask a single question, sitting quietly and listening to how skilled people think, how they solve problems, how they talk about failure, teaches you more than most courses will.

None of this happens by accident. You have to go looking for the rooms where you are the weakest link. That means discomfort. It means turning up to clubs, events, retreats or communities where you are clearly behind everyone else in the room, and staying anyway. It means being comfortable feeling uncomfortable, on purpose, repeatedly.

I try to build this into my life in a structured way. On the running side, I look for people faster than me, races harder than the ones I am ready for, training partners who push a pace I have to chase. In business, I put myself in front of people who have already solved the problems I am still working through. Some of those rooms have left me quiet for an hour, out of my depth, taking notes rather than talking. Those have often been the most valuable hours of the month.

There is a natural cycle to it too. Spend enough time around people better than you at something, and inevitably you improve. Eventually you may close the gap, even overtake some of them. When that happens, the answer is not to relax. It is to go and find the next room where you are behind again. That search, repeated over years, is one of the most reliable paths to genuine improvement I know of.

I think about this streak the same way. Day 2068 does not make me an expert in anything. It makes me someone who has shown up, barefoot-style, every single day, long enough to have covered 15,972.19 kilometres of the 40,075km lap of the world I set out to run. There are 24,102.81km left. I am not the strongest runner out there, not close, and I never set out to be. What I have is consistency, and a willingness to keep learning from people who know more than me about pacing, recovery, and endurance than I do.

That same principle drives the mission behind this project. Every kilometre logged is tied to raising £1M for children's causes, including Great Ormond Street Hospital and BBC Children in Need. I am not the most experienced fundraiser, and I am not pretending otherwise. But I keep showing up, keep learning from people who understand fundraising better than I do, and keep logging the miles regardless.

If today's episode lands with you, here is the takeaway I would want you to carry. Stop avoiding the rooms where you feel behind. Go and find them. Sit in them. Listen. Ask the question you think is silly. Then take what you learn and put it to work.

If you want to follow the streak, or support the mission to reach 40,075km and raise £1M for children's causes, the link is below. Every share puts the mission in front of one more person who might help a child.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/r-wdmD6CNkw