Joy in the Journey

I love to run races.  


This weekend I participated in one of the hardest and most fun races I've ever done: the Waterton-Glacier Relay.

Starting in Cardston at 6 AM on Saturday, this race stretched 100 miles all the way to East Glacier, Montana, going through the Chief Mountain Border crossing.

There were 12 people on my team.  We each had to run two legs of the race, with each leg ranging from 5 to 9 kilometres.  There were hills galore and the wind was down right treacherous in some places, but the beautiful scenery made up for it.

I'll admit, I didn't realize exactly how competitive I am until running this race.  When it was my turn to run it was as if a switch got flicked in my head and all I wanted to do was hunt people down and pass them.  After running my first leg between Leavitt and Mountain View and passing six people I found myself starting to take things sort of serious.  I wanted my team to place well!  I started to dwell on our times and how many people we were passing and how much farther we had to run instead of simply enjoying the amazing experience of running with a great group of friends in a spectacular place.

Fortunately, after running my second leg, I was able to snap out of competition mode.  This leg started in St. Mary's and went up the steep curving highway towards Browning.  It was torture!  Not once did the highway ease up, I had to run uphill for over 6 kilometres.  Thankfully, my team was there with me for every step of the journey, pulling ahead and cheering for me, offering me water, and letting me know just how much further there was.  I don't think I've ever had so many people rooting for me and being genuinely excited for me to finish than after completing this leg, which made me realize how silly I had been for getting caught up in the competition and forgetting the most important part of the race: the experience.

As we continued to draw closer to the finish line, I began to ponder on how many other "races" exist in my life, where I allow myself to lose sight of the journey and find myself focussing on the end result.  Goodness gracious I'm guilty!  The biggest "race" currently being my schooling.

I can't wait to graduate with a degree so I can move away from Calgary for the rest of my life.  I've calculated how to finish things as fast as possible and have devoted myself to taking as many classes as possible.  I spend eight months of the year hibernating until I can finally move home for the summer.  I'm racing to get the heck out of there.  And because of this, I'm missing out on enjoying the journey of attending university, meeting new friends, and living away from home.

It's a such a pity.  This decade or so of young adulthood is so often wasted by focussing on the finish line.  So many exciting things are in store, such as graduating, starting a career, and getting married, that we forget to take a deep breath and really cherish every inch of the race towards them.  From now on, I want country roads, sidewalks, and treadmills to be the only things I race on.  My life is too good to speed through by wishing every phase of it to hurry up.  It's time to find joy in the journey.