Slow and Steady

Was the motto tonight. The distance? 4 miles. The course? Varied with a very challenging .5 mile hill at the end. The goal? Finish strong. And I did.

As I was climbing the said hill that seems to never end, I saw a runner in the distance ahead. At first, I thought she had a huge lead on me but her frequent stops and my steady pace brought me to a point right behind her. Her challenges became clear to me as I watched her scramble and stop, and scramble and stop. She was giving it her very best, but she was pouring all her speed and energy into it at once. During one of her stops, I passed her and we shared an understanding eye contact moment. I certainly am not pretending to be a better runner than anyone out there and I understand the meaning of a bad hill, or simply a bad running day. But if I were going to offer her any advice today, it would have beenmy motto: slow and steady. That is not to say that speed is not important, because it is something I'm working on. But I really believe (and someone is going to hold me to this on a bad day, I can see it now) that if there is a challenge, and you find yourself spinning all your wheels at once, you can probably conquer it by slowing down and sticking with it.