Recently I took a 7 hour run through the forest.
No, I wasn't being chased by a bear.
That was the start of my 50k race in Portland's Forest Park. That's about 31 miles.
About because it's a trail race and it's really difficult to get an accurate measurement. It's also going to be about 3/4 mile up and 3/4 mile down because, you know... hills.
My point in telling you about this is:
To get ready for this race I started training almost 8 months ago.
Every week for the past 33 weeks I've run three to five days for upwards of 10 hours per week.
I'm not saying this to brag. If you've done any kind of endurance training, you know this is normal.
What I am trying to say is that some goals just take a lot of time.
You can't get ready for an ultramarathon in a few weeks.
You can't build a business in nights and weekends for a month and expect to replace your job.
You can't attract and earn thousands of customers with a week of work.
These take time. Patience. And showing up.
Going out on long runs reminds me of that.
Little incremental improvements add up and are the sustainable way to grow anything lasting.
So take today, whether a holiday or not, and use a few minutes to reflect on how far you've come and the struggles you've gone though.
And commit to yourself that you'll keep going through the next set of struggles.
As they say in the ultramarathon community,
When it gets hard, just put one foot in front of the other and keep going.
Eric Davis