Honour your journey | My 17km epiphany.

Honour your Journey.

This morning I literally ran the hardest run of my life.  I started fast and solid, but by the end, I had my eyes glued on my phone, just waiting to reach my target distance.  I couldn't wait to stop.  Each meter felt like it had expanded.  It was very hard.  The body is extremely resilient however.  Despite the struggle, I loved each moment. Despite the struggle, I'm looking forward to race-day.  And, as I type this now, I don't feel the same fatigue on my body. I only feel calm.  I also feel contentment.

Running has an amazing ability to make you see things clearly.  Today, as I ran, all I could think of was "honour your journey".

I was never physically active while growing up.  In fact, I remember the first day I decided to go to the gym. I was in undergrad - probably around 19 years old. I decided to run the indoor track in Hart House at the University of Toronto. After 7 minutes, I was literally gasping for breath.  While running, I kept questioning how people were able to run for longer.  My heart felt like it would jump out of my chest.  Pushing my body that hard, however, made me feel alive in a way that I had never experienced before.  I was very proud of myself.  That 7 minute run caused me to fix my slouch and walk with my back upright to my class that afternoon. I had accomplished something great, and I knew it.

Today, as I struggled near the end...I remembered that same feeling of accomplishment and my mind kept on repeating, "honour your journey, honour your journey".

I ran for about an hour and 45 minutes this morning.  Sincerely though, I don't feel that my 7 minute accomplishment from almost 10 years ago is any less significant today.  Given my lack of athleticism at that time, that 7 minutes was all my body could do, and because I hadn't done it before, I knew it was something to be proud of.  Today, my 17km accomplishment isn't anything more significant in and of itself because I've had years of practice to build up to where I am now. It's all about the journey, and our abilities should be contextualized. Otherwise, we will do a disservice to our journey.  We will steal praise where praise is due, and we will inflate praise where humbleness is due.

Sometimes when we see an athlete, or hear about someone who goes to the gym regularly, we might be envious and wish we were able to do the same. We might look down upon ourselves because we feel we are less accomplished physically. All I can say though, is honour your journey.  Where you are physically now is as a result of unique life circumstances and decisions overtime.  Assess your progress with only one point of reference: yourself.

Quite frankly, I only started really paying attention to physical activity about 3 years ago.   The body is quick to learn and you get out of it what you put in.  Set yourself a goal, make an internal promise, and work towards it.  That should be all that matters.  If we all had the same starting point, it would make sense to compare our physical accomplishments to those around us.  But we all have different starting points...from past activity, to unique bodies and family history, to our life's struggles - extremely different starting points.   When you decide to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle, it only makes sense to look inside.

Praise be to God for the ability, energy and opportunity to be where I am now in my fitness, and for my amazing morning epiphany.  Let's all remember to look inside, and honour our journey.