Thomas Mumford Start your hard thing

One hard thing a year. In public

I’m Thomas. I run Undergrads, a student moving company, and every year I pick one thing I’m not sure I can do. 2025 was 75 Hard. 2026 was a full-distance triathlon in Barcelona, from zero. A storm cancelled it the day before, so I ran 26.27 miles in Calella anyway.

Start your hard thing Read the story
Day 134: back on the bike after Barcelona.

The hard thing tracker

  1. 2025

    75 Hard

    Aug to Nov. The first one: showing up every day.

    Complete
  2. 2026

    Full-distance triathlon, Barcelona

    Trained from zero since April. Cancelled Oct 3 by a storm. On Oct 4 I ran 26.27 mi in Calella anyway.

    Cancelled, then ran
Day 129, after the cancellation.

The race was cancelled. I ran anyway.

The race was called off the day before. I had trained since April for one day, and the day was gone. So the next day I ran 26.27 miles in Calella anyway.

Distance
26.27 mi
Moving time
4h 09m
Average heart rate
162 bpm

From Strava. The race itself has no result: it never started.

See the heart-rate chart

Recent videos

Filmed on the day, cut by Patrick Mata. Tap to play with sound.

All videos
  • Race week, Calella, 11 sRace kit, backed by 2026 supporters
  • Day 129, packing up, 14 sFlying with wheels? Two things.
  • Day 134, back home, 18 sPump your tires. Every ride.

Get the free guide: Pick your hard thing

Pick your hard thing is a short PDF on how I chose mine and how you can choose yours: the six categories, the three levels, and the six-month shape I use.

Not medical advice.

  • 11.8full-distance triathlons of distance since Apr 20
  • 26.27 mirun in Calella the day after the race was cancelled
  • +23%bike speed at the same heart rate (trend from 29 rides, a small sample)

See all the stats

What’s your one hard thing?

Pick a category and a level, answer four questions, and get a six-month plan written the way I’d build mine. It takes two minutes.

Build my plan

Merch

Designs for people doing a hard thing. Not on sale yet.

Join the merch list
  • ONE HARD THING

    Wordmark tee

    Coming soon
  • 26.27 CALELLA · OCT 4

    26.27 Calella tee

    Coming soon
  • DO THE HARD THING

    Statement cap

    Coming soon
  • PICK ONE

    Pick one bottle

    Coming soon

Undergrads

The company pays for the hard things. It started at Clemson in 2017 with a Craigslist ad: two college kids to move your stuff. Now background-checked student crews move people in 21 markets.

  • 2017founded at Clemson
  • 21markets
  • 40,000+moves

How Undergrads works Partner with Thomas