Finding Joy in the Journey

In early January of 2000, I decided that I wanted to accomplish an amazing goal that year. After all, how often do we get to be part of the start of a brand new millennium? I’d been running a little over 3 years at the time, so I decided I wanted to complete a marathon. Which was a very lofty goal for me.

I looked for a local marathon that was several months out and chose the Jacksonville Marathon, which was scheduled for December 16th.  I bought some marathon training books, chose my program, and began training in June. We were living in central Florida at the time, so those first few months of runs were hot. And humid. I learned so many things during those 6 months of training…here are just a few:

• What to eat and what not to eat before long runs. Eating dairy products and heavy foods the night before were not my friend! (Runners Trots is a real thing. Google it). I came up with a fruity protein shake concoction that worked like a charm before those long runs.
• Figuring out which energy gels worked best and which ones didn’t.
• How to prevent blisters on race day: Lather your feet in Vaseline and then put on a pair of old socks every night for a week before the race, then wear double layered socks on race day. It totally worked!
• What to eat the week before the race: Lots and lots of healthy carbs, including lots of fruits and vegetables, as well as protein. Low-fat is best.

I dove deep into all the race-related details because I wanted to leave nothing to chance on race day because simply completing a 26.2 mile race is already full of so many potential surprises!

John and the kids were totally on board with this goal, and they worked around my training runs and supported me in any ways they could. We even took a day trip over to Jacksonville one Saturday a couple of weeks before the race so we could drive the race route a few times so that the route wouldn’t be an unknown for me on race day. And that fun family day and learning the course did so much to help settle my race day nerves!

Race day finally came, and I felt I was as ready as I could be. And I was very, very nervous. But I knew I’d put in the work, so I prayed that I’d be able to finish my goal and complete the marathon.

And I did it! I finished the race and achieved my goal!

As I got close to the finish line, with my family waiting for me at the finish line, cheering as loudly as they could (They’d also met me at mile 13.1—the halfway mark—to cheer for me!), I was surprised at how I felt when I finally crossed that finish line. Yes, I was beyond excited and proud of myself for accomplishing a very lofty and difficult goal. Yes, there were some tears. After all, I’d just finished a marathon! But crossing that finish line felt different than I’d expected. I think I thought that crossing that finish line would be…magical? More monumental? Or I’d all of a sudden feel different? I was already living a very happy life, but maybe I thought I’d feel happier? I’m not exactly sure what I thought finishing would feel like, but it wasn’t what it actually felt like.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking…

When I accomplish _____, THEN I’ll be happy.
When _____ happens, THEN I’ll be happy.

What about being happy right now? What about finding joy in the beginning and middle and close to the end of the journey?

I think it’s easy to get caught up in the end of the journey—crossing that “finish line,” thinking that there is something we have to wait to experience or that we get to experience once we’re done. I love this quote about finding joy in—and during—the journey:

“Sometimes we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey.” ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

As I thought of how I felt about finishing that marathon journey, I realized that I’d missed an important part of that journey—finding joy and things to remember in the journey itself. All six months of it. Things like…

❤️ 12 year old Zach would watch the other kids during my Saturday long runs when John was out of town for work.

❤️ 9 year old Kamala rode her bike with me and was my water carrier until I reached 10+ mile Saturday long runs. She came with me so I didn’t have to be alone while running for miles and miles and miles. She’d talk with me and encourage me, which was so helpful and meant so much to me. I loved that time we got to spend together!

❤️ 6 year old Parker liked to sprint ahead of me when I’d take the kids with me on some shorter runs. I always wished I could bottle up just a little bit of his seemingly endless energy.

❤️ 3 year old Kailen would cheer me on as she ate Cheerios in the running stroller while I ran some shorter runs. “Faster, mommy! Faster!” Do you know how much harder it is to run with a 3 year old in a running stroller? Give it a try sometime.

❤️ My amazing husband, John, who took over as my long run buddy when those 18+ mile Saturday long runs got to be too long mentally to do alone.

❤️ My dear friend, Diana, who would stay with my kids on the Saturday long runs when John was out of town for work and when Zach (our resident babysitter) had an activity.

❤️ All the friends and family who encouraged me throughout those 6 months.

❤️ All the many things I learned about myself during those 6 months:

• God is with me in the easy and the hard times. I often felt Him encouraging me and strengthening me when it got hard to run throughout those 6 months of training and especially on race day.
• What to do and what not to do, which lead me to want to become a Certified Personal Trainer and a Certified Nutrition Coach so I could help others with their health and fitness goals.
• How to better fuel my body properly through healthy eating. I’ve always been a pretty healthy eater, but training for this marathon taught me even more about how to use food to give my body the fuel it needs for whatever I want to accomplish.
• Fear can often keep me from accomplishing difficult goals or from going outside my comfort zone. Finishing a marathon was miles outside of my comfort zone.
• I can do hard things. Even really hard things. This was a biggie!
• It’s important to make the most of every step in the journey because we just never know what’s going to happen tomorrow, or days, or weeks, or even months from now. Enjoy. The. Journey.

5 Tips for Finding Joy in the Journey

While focusing on the end of the journey can be motivating—as it should be, it can be so easy to miss the joy we can find during the journey. Here are 5 ways you can find joy along the way to accomplishing a goal.

• Keep track of any and all accomplishments and celebrate every single one!
• Record what you’re learning all along the way—you don’t want to forget any of those golden nuggets of knowledge that can help you in the present and in the future!

Learn from the past, look to the future, but live in the present. ~Petra Nemcova

• Be grateful every day because no matter how difficult a day might be, you can always find something to be grateful for. Always.
• Cheer on and support others who are on their own journey. Ask how you can help them achieve their goals. Become a part of their journey.
• Enjoy every single moment of every single day as much as possible. Today will only happen once. The minutes in today will only happen once. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Forever.

And here are some final words from a podcast I listened to this morning while running that really resonated with me:

“You’ve got to fall in love with the action and in like with the achievement.” ~Jon Acuff

Let that sit for a few minutes…Apply that to whatever you want to achieve…

What journey are you on right now? What pieces of joy can you find right now?

And then go find them.