The 500km McUltra

500km Around a McDonald’s Drive-Thru

My life is usually built around goals, purpose, and process. Big projects with a thousand moving parts: logistics, terrain, weather, risk, timelines. Always thinking five steps ahead. Every ride, every film, every challenge tends to point somewhere. There’s a reason, a destination, a result waiting at the end.

Every now and then, it feels important to strip all of that away, this was one of those moments.

Riding 500km around a McDonald’s drive-thru had no deeper meaning, no scenic payoff, no storybook finish line. Just a short loop, repeated over and over, until stubbornness outweighed common sense, it was pointless in the most freeing way possible. That’s exactly what made it appealing.

The simplicity was refreshing, no route decisions, no unknown variables, no risk assessment beyond staying awake and upright. Physically, it was manageable, tentally, it was relentless. The same corners, the same lights, the same smells. Hours blurred together as the mind searched for novelty where there was none.

With nowhere to escape to the real challenge became internal. Managing boredom, managing frustration, resisting the urge to quit simply because it would make sense to quit. Keeping the peace in your own head when nothing is changing becomes the real work.

There’s something honest about that environment, it strips away ego, ambition, and performance. You’re left with repetition, discomfort, time and no distraction from your own thoughts.

In a life usually defined by complex objectives and high-stakes projects, this felt like a reset. A reminder that not everything has to mean something. Sometimes doing something purely for the sake of it is exactly what keeps you grounded and quietly prepares you for when the stakes are high again.