we are all in charge of creating what is appetizing in our lives

​Since Saturday morning, I've been following some runner friends who are involved in a running event called The Big Dog's Backyard Ultra. This event doesn't follow your normal race framework of line up at a start and run to a predetermined finish line. No - the finish line for this race doesn't come until there's only one runner left standing to cross it.

For nearly 48 hours now, these friends have been running a 4.17 mile loop once every hour. If you complete that loop before the hour is up, you are granted the opportunity to line up and run it again the next hour. If you can't, you're done.

I'll save you the math - they are coming up on 200 miles worth of loops. That is unimaginable to me. As of this writing, there are still 5 of them left battling it out.

It occurs to me those 5 have reached a point where they have to feel like they are out there wandering and waiting. Sleepless and physically beaten up they stagger through the miles, all the while asking themselves - when will this end.

I find myself wondering, how do they keep going? How do they look around them in circumstances begging them to quit and yet find a way to keep going?

I've been there in running and in life. Not at that 200 mile mark - I assure you - but we all have our point where life begins to feel like wandering and waiting. We all reach the mile marker where quitting is far more appetizing than continuing. It's been my personal experience that too often when we get here, we grab hold of what sounds most appetizing instead of trusting there's something better just one more step ahead.

Going for what is appetizing often meets a personal desire. It settles for the easiest path. Trust, well that often leans into something bigger than us. Trust often wants to remind us we've made it to the other side of struggle before; we'll do it again.

Running has taught me we are all in charge of creating what is appetizing in our lives. If you quit enough, when you get to the point of wandering and waiting in your life, quitting will sound delicious. But if you get to that point often enough, and choose to pass on today's happy hour special and press on, you ultimately discover the secret to a happy life.

You ultimately get to a point where wandering and waiting isn't life's way of intimidating you - it's life's way of inviting you to trust that it's all worth it.