A few weekends ago I forgot my GPS watch when I went on a run. As I started down the trail I thought to myself, “Well, I guess this one doesn’t really count”. Which, of course, is ridiculous. Just because it won’t show up on my Garmin dashboard doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter.
How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. – Annie Dillard
In life, it is often the sum of the little things that matter as much or more than our bigger actions. When I’m training for a race, I have no problem getting motivated for a long run on Saturday. The hard part is dragging myself out of bed for the short, frequent runs throughout the week. But the shorter in-between runs are just as, or more important than those weekend slogs.
I thought about the races I haven’t run. The ones where I injured myself before race day. The ones that didn’t fit in my schedule. Was all that training wasted? Of course not.
A friend of mine asked me what I liked about long distance races. I surprised myself with my response. I told him the often used cliche, “Its about the journey, not about the destination” was actually quite fitting. I like working towards something. I like the momentum and the purpose. But even if I don’t get there, I find I arrive somewhere.
The reward of running—of anything—lies within us. – Scott Jurek
For a long time when people asked me if I was a runner, I would hesitate and reluctantly answer yes. That changed after I read a piece with the theme “we are what we do”. If you take pictures, you are a photographer – whether you get paid to do it or not. If you write, you are a writer. If you create art, you are an artist. And if you run, you are a runner.
The reason that run counted was because that’s what I am – a runner.
What more is our life than the sum of what we do each day? Let’s make every day count.
