The Wrong Turn Is Often More Right Than We Know

​I recently read a story of a young lady, Sophia Dick, who was running a half marathon as part of the Cincinnati Flying Pig running series. The story caught my eye because I've run that particular race.

While reading the story, the plot took an interesting turn. Or better put, I guess, a wrong turn.

There's a place in the race where the full marathon runners go one way, and the half marathoners go another. I remember that place well because it was there that I thought, "Thank God I don't have to go with them!"

Well, Sophia missed her turn at that place and accidentally went with THEM.

Once she realized her mistake, she had two choices: turn around and finish the race she'd started, or continue on and finish a marathon she never wanted to start in the first place, and in doing so run a distance she'd never run before and surely hadn't trained for.

Sophia chose the latter.

A very cool part of the story is that she found herself in a pace group led by my friend and ultra running legend Harvey Lewis - Ultra Runner. Anyone who knows Harvey knows that if you've found yourself in a challenging place, you couldn't have a better leader.

Harvey has accomplished some incredible running feats in his career, but equally amazing to me, he's helped countless other people - myself included - accomplish more than they ever thought they could.

So, unsurprisingly, Sophia did it. She completed the marathon she didn't know she was going to run. And in impressive fashion: 3 hours and 30 minutes!!

After the race, Sophia said something profound. She said:

"Sometimes the wrong turn can take you further than the right turn ever could."

I mean, right? She did run 13 miles further than she would have if she'd taken the right turn.

But that's not the kind of further Sophia was referencing. She was suggesting that unplanned or unwanted experiences in our lives might result in growth we'd never get sticking with the original plan.

Or following the plan we thought we were supposed to follow.

That hits home with me.

I can spend a lot of time lamenting the life that hasn't gone the way IT WAS SUPPOSED TO GO. And I can get deeply stuck in that lamenting. Until I force myself to take account of all that the unplanned and unwanted directions in life have taught me.

Of all the gifts that have come into my life via the wrong turns.

I wonder how much time we waste believing the secret in life is figuring out the right and wrong turns, when the real secret is to just go.

Just freaking go.

I'm not trying to suggest a haphazard life. But I am trying to suggest once you're in the middle of a 'wrong' turn - make it right.

Lessons in life don't come from the right path, they come from being open to learning from whatever path you might find yourself on. There is NO path that does not teach to one who longs to learn.

Sometimes that's not the path you intended to be on. But I wonder: how many people have missed out on beauty in their life by deciding there's none to be found going the 'wrong' way?

If you feel like you're going the wrong way today, make it right!

Well done Sophia. Not just for your incredible marathon. But maybe more, for helping us all see some of the best finish lines in life are at the end of roads we never intended to travel.