I post this, not to say how great I am, but as encouragement to all of you. I think sometimes we focus too much on the end goal, and not enough on the process that got us there.

I have completed 2 half-marathons. I have also trained for 2 half-marathons.

Which one of those sentences is more impressive? Running/walking 13.1 miles on the day of the race, or all the miles that led up to that?

Obviously, for a long time I focused on the races. My goal for my second one was to cut my time by about half an hour (wanted to be under 3 hours). I ended up cutting it by 25 minutes which I decided was close enough. 😉

Then I asked myself if I was actually in better shape for the second one, or did I just pace better, push myself harder, . . . the questions go on.

(And yes, to anyone who knows anything about racing, I know that people run *marathons* in less time than it took me for a half. I know it’s not an impressive time. But I finished. TWICE.)

Now I’ve realized that although of course it’s nice to have a medal and a brag-worthy finishing time, it says a lot about me that I put in all those training miles over the months beforehand.

I stuck with it, and that’s something to be proud of.