Leadville Week

The outcome doesn’t validate the journey. The journey gives meaning to the outcome.

Getting to Leadville has taken months, yet the race itself will take just 25 hours.

It was the early mornings when nobody was watching. The long runs when I felt great… and the others when I felt terrible. The miles when I wondered what in the world I had signed up for.  And somewhere along the way, without realizing it, the race started doing its work on me long before I ever reached the starting line. 

That’s the gift of choosing something hard. That’s why I am doing this. The finish line gives us something to aim at, but the pursuit is what changes us.

I want to finish. Badly. There is no participation-trophy philosophy happening here. I didn’t spend all these months training just to enjoy the scenery. I’m going to Leadville to run 100 miles and earn that buckle. But there’s a difference between being committed to an outcome and allowing your happiness to depend on it.

Maybe that’s one of life’s harder lessons: Give everything to the pursuit, but attach nothing to the result.

Because eventually, all of us encounter things we can’t control. I can’t control the weather in Leadville. I can’t control exactly how my body responds to the altitude. I can’t guarantee my stomach cooperates or that my legs feel the way I hope they will at mile 70.

But…I can prepare. I can make good decisions. I can keep moving forward. And eventually, I have to surrender the rest.  Life works a lot like that.

We prepare. We work. We dream. We pray. We give everything we have to the things that matter to us. But we don’t get to write every ending. And if gratitude only arrives when life gives us the ending we wanted, we’re going to miss an awful lot of beautiful things along the way.

So I’m choosing gratitude now. Before the starting gun. Before Hope Pass. Before the suffering…Because I get to do this.

I get to drive into those mountains. I get to stand on that starting line. I get to test myself. I get to hurt and feel the gift of self-chosen suffering. I get to laugh. I get to see parts of this country that most people will never see. I get to discover what happens when my body says it’s had enough and something deeper inside me says, one more.

There will be plenty of time Saturday to worry about getting to the finish line.

Today, I just want to be grateful that I made it to the starting line.

Whatever happens somewhere between Leadville and that finish line, these miles have already changed me.

I haven’t earned the buckle yet.  But I’ve already received the gift. Thank you for the gift of 2nd chances and the strength to always get back up. Lets do this!

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