One More Lap - even on hard days

October 23, 2025... I went for a run. On my own. No coach to push me. Me, putting on running shoes, stepping out of my house, and working to get up to a mile in order to do my first 5k in December and then my first Hyrox (5 mile run plus extra) in March.

Nearly a year later, here's what I've learned:

That first quarter mile still sucks. I don't know why. It's painful, no matter how much stretching and warm ups I do.

That second quarter mile still sucks. Still painful. Calves feel like bricks. Around this point I start thinking to myself, "Maybe I just run a 1k today... I'm halfway there. Just do what I did again. I can do that. I know I can, I already did it."

That third quarter mile. You guessed it. still sucks. This is the crossing point for 1000 meters. at half the lap (or if I'm running around the gym, 3 full building laps). And at the same time... 1000 meters, well that's much closer to 1600 meters of a full mile than 600 was... I already did 1000... I can do 600 more.

That fourth quarter mile. It sucks. and I've started to get used to the pain in my calves. It's become normal at this point. I've already been running with the pain for 7/8 minutes... 2 more minutes is nothing. (Yes, I know. I'm not breaking the sound barrier here)

And then I hit a mile.... and guess what happens... I've already done one mile, I can do another lap... well that's a 2k. 2k is surely better than 1k.

And I go for another lap...

Lap 5 -- darned if it doesn't suck just as much as lap 1... in fact, I realized this week as I finished each mile and as those miles added up and became multiple miles, that every lap is me negotiating with myself to just do one more. One more something.

I've been running after high intensity workouts. my legs are already tired. I'm already dripping in sweat. They were jello today... Jello and wobbly, and they will be next week when I run my second Hyrox.

Jello, wobbly, in pain, and Thank God for the pain.

Thank God I can choose the pain. That I can walk outside at 5:50am after an hour in the gym and decide to go run, and run some more, and run some more.

There are a lot of alternatives.

A lot of other ways to live my life. And yet I want to live a life of intention. A life of choosing the hard road. In this case literally.

I can run one more lap. Every time btw. Not once have I negotiated myself into another lap where I didn't finish. Wild.

Wild because... how many times have you negotiated with yourself AND LOST? Like where you knew you woulda, shoulda, coulda done it... and instead of doing it you coulda woulda shoulda and stopped...

How many things have been painful and because of the pain we didn't lean in?

We leaned... well out.

And where did that get us?

One of my favorite sayings from one of my mentors, John Maxwell is "Nobody ever got to the top of a mountain by accident."

They weren't just sitting around and said "ohhhh... how did I get here?!"

You coast DOWN hill... the people at the top weren't taking it easy and ended up at the peak of... talent, performance, fitness, relationships.

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly, and doing persistently, and then consistently, until it gets good.

Until you climb. One step at a time.

I don't know if I will ever run without pain. And I do know that I've learned to run with pain.

We all live life with some pain. Anyone who has ever loved anything greatly has also experience the pain of great loss. I wouldn't have life any other way.

This is a hard day for our family. It's one of a couple really hard days and times of year. Love and loss will do that.

And the pain you face can stop you. Or it can accompany you. One more lap. That step forward is taking you to the place you want to go.

Don't stop now.

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and i write thoughts like this down on occasion. I'm gonna put most of them here. if you want to read more, subscribe )