Before Thanksgiving

FATHOM THIS

Jesse Itzler has a practice he calls the Misogi.

Pick one hard thing every year. Something you might fail at. Something that requires more than your current version can comfortably deliver. Not because suffering is the point — because the person you become in the attempt is worth more than anything the comfortable path offers.

I heard that and immediately knew what my hard thing was going to be before Thanksgiving.

Not because it is impressive. Because it is necessary.

I am a better husband when I am training for something. A better father. A better coach. A better person in this community. There is something about having a goal that is just beyond what feels easy — something that requires early mornings or late evenings, something that demands more than the day already asked for — that sharpens everything else. The discomfort in the training bleeds into the clarity everywhere else.

So I am doing the hard thing. And I am doing it for someone who has been doing something far harder than this every single day since November 2022.

FIELD REPORT | #24for12

David Cornbrooks wore number 12 as a midfielder at the University of Pennsylvania.

He also went to St. Paul's School in Baltimore. The same school I attended. The same school where my father wore #42 on that same field decades before I did. The same place that shaped how I understood the game, the community, and what it means to show up for something bigger than yourself.

David was diagnosed with Stage IV ALK+ lung cancer at 38 years old. A former Division I athlete. Never smoked a cigarette in his life. Two young kids at home. His college sweetheart by his side.

He did not turn inward. He turned outward.

The Sweat For Breath Foundation has now raised over 1.2 million dollars and helped fund the first ALK+ cancer vaccine trial in the world. Dr. Vincent Lam at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center administered the vaccine to the first patient on May 13, 2024. The research David helped build from nothing is now extending lives that had nowhere else to go.

More research means more life. David is living proof of that.

Here is what I am doing about it.

The week of November 16, 2026 I will cover 24 miles through my community in Raleigh, North Carolina. 12 miles on a bike. 12 miles on foot. 24 total — representing the number David wore at Penn. The route stays private — shared only with the friends and family I trust to know where I am. The mission does not stay private.

The fundraising goal is $12,000. One thousand dollars for every mile of the running portion. Every dollar goes directly to ALK+ lung cancer research. No overhead. Just the science that is keeping David alive and building hope for the next person who gets the diagnosis.

This is #24for12.

MINDSET OS | The After-Hours Work

Between now and November 16 I will be training in the early mornings and late evenings — the hours that exist outside the day's obligations, the hours that require a deliberate decision to get up or stay up rather than coast into comfort.

I want that. That is the point.

David goes into every day already carrying something most of us cannot fully imagine. He trains his mind and his body and his spirit against something that does not negotiate. If I can sweat in the after-hours, be uncomfortable in the dark, do more work when the day has already asked enough — that is the easiest decision I have ever made. To serve something bigger than anything I am building. To move my body for someone who is fighting for the right to keep moving his.

Starting today I will post one update per day across Instagram, LinkedIn, and X. Not a production. Not a performance. One honest post — what I did, how it felt, why it matters. A photo of running shoes on pavement before sunrise. A bike in the dark. Three sentences maximum.

If you want to join — post your own workout with #24for12 and #SweatForBreath from wherever you are. Run a mile. Bike around the block. Do something hard in the after-hours this week and put it in the world. We will find you.

We are also grateful to have Jacked Granny fueling the training — nutrition and energy for the early mornings and late sessions when the body needs something real to keep going. More on them as the weeks unfold.

HOW TO SUPPORT

The fundraising goal is $12,000. The event is the week of November 16.

Everything connected to this campaign lives in one place — the donation link for Sweat For Breath, the Field & Fathom newsletter, and the Atticus Lacrosse training program. Find it all here and choose your next step.

👉 linktr.ee/AtticusLacrosseCo

If you cannot donate — share this letter with one person tonight. That is worth more than you think.

#24for12 #SweatForBreath #FieldAndFathom

About the Author

Kyle Smedley is the founder of Harbor Lane Holdings, building at the intersection of sport, people, and capital.

Career stops include Events.com, Tourmaline Builders, Lombardi Contracting Corporation, and DPR Construction. Today he leads Atticus Lacrosse Company, working alongside Mad Dog Lacrosse and Ravenscroft School, and Harbor Lane Company, operating across real estate, private equity, and talent placement.

Reach out directly: [email protected]

Harbor Lane Holdings

Field & Fathom · Harbor Lane Holdings

TLDR Marketing is the free daily email with summaries of the most interesting stories in growth, martech, and digital marketing. The tactics worth stealing, minus the digging through LinkedIn.

Every issue is curated by subject-matter experts and lands in your inbox before your morning coffee. A 5-minute read, and you walk into the day already knowing what your competitors are still figuring out.

We cover the channels that move your numbers: paid, SEO, email, social, and ecommerce. Whether you work in B2B or B2C, in-house or agency-side, pick the stories that match your work.

Free, daily, and read by 330K+ marketers. Subscribe for free and let someone else do the digging.

Subscribe for free