my fellow champions...victory is upon us
Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character” T. Alan Armstrong quote.
Funny how life seems to scream at you sometimes with valuable lessons….it is during these life talks that I keep my heart and soul open to learn. Some would call them signs – noticing something very relevant and needed at exactly the right time.
I have had a couple bad runs in a row – an ache in my foot and stab in my knee have pierced my spirit and questioned the “why am I doing this again”? conversations with my mother-runner support group. “What if I don’t finish?” “What if I get hurt again and get off schedule?” “What if I am not built to run?”
This morning the “sign” appeared….my daughter Mya jumped on the computer, as she has done for the past couple weeks, to Disney.com where she learned that the music video that her and her cousin had entered into the JONAS BROTHER competition was not selected as a finalist. She stared at me with deep sad teary eyes and my heart broke for her. Taking a deep breath I hugged her and told her this: sometimes it is the fun of the journey that is the reward and not the end result that matters. I started asking her the questions: wasn’t it SO super fun to make the video, watch it on the computer, tell your friends and grandparents about it, vote for it yada yada yada. She began to think about all the fun they had had over the past weeks building up to this point and she seemed a little more at peace with it. Wow, I thought….this is a huge life lesson. We mostly teach young children with rewards and prizes– so this is all she knows – now I am flipping the lesson – and saying do not worry about the end – love THE NOW. My baby girl is growing up – she is getting into the nitty gritty of what life and love and happiness is all about….
I love this quote because it reminds me of the fact that the training is the performance too – the many hours of sweating, praying, and sacrificing in preparation for the race is what demonstrates our championship character too. The race is beautiful and poetic in the service of honoring the thousands of champions who cross the finish line and the many who don’t but who TOO are victorious for the majestic effort that was given in the journey.
I realized that the huge accomplishment of finishing this first marathon is a goal – that is all it is – a goal. A wonderful beautiful goal that I truly hope to achieve. But that the runs, aches, joys, pains, skips, conversations, disappointments and bliss of each TRAINING run is ALSO what it is all about. All I now for sure is that today I can continue to put one step in front of the other and run. That the NOW is all I have – this blissful second an opportunity to be lived to its fullest…no fear or anticipation for the “what if’s” of life, or the ugly ego that seems to bare it’s face at the weakest of our moments….
And so with a “in the now” attitude I embrace the journey of my training – taking each run and all its complexities with an open heart and body – sweet victory in my stride and breath – I choose to seize the day!
Here are some more quotes…
“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”
–John Bingham, running speaker and writer
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it” by Greg Anderson
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.”
-Les Brown
“If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.”